Deputy’s call for Aurigny to stop operating most of its flights ‘based on ill-informed and inaccurate’ commentary
A GUERNSEY politician wants Aurigny to sell all of its aeroplanes and stop running the majority of its flights.
Deputy Lester Queripel has called for drastic action to address the ‘astronomical and completely unacceptable annual losses’.
He wants the States-owned airline to operate only the Gatwick link and the Alderney route, and he has written to the States’ Trading Supervisory Board to get public answers.
Aurigny currently flies to 11 destinations out of Guernsey, including Jersey, Southampton, Stansted, Bristol and Grenoble.
The airline is forecast to make £7m. losses this year, rising to £9.6m. next year.
Deputy Queripel also wants the States to impose a new management team, a freeze on work to establish new routes, and a lease on planes to operate the Gatwick and Alderney route.
In response, the vice president of the States’ Trading Supervisory Board, Deputy Jeremy Smithies, has written back to disagree with the measures set out by Deputy Queripel. He wrote that a future direction for Aurigny should be ‘based on an objective assessment of the facts’ and not on ‘subjective, ill-informed and inaccurate’ public commentary.
Deputy Smithies also pointed out that Aurigny employs hundreds of people in the Bailiwick and further afield, and that a review is under way to establish a cohesive and realistic government framework for all of the island’s whole route network.
The STSB is in agreement with Deputy Queripel that steps need to be taken to address the losses, but adds the caveat that the steps must be based on evidence.
‘The facts as we know them do not support the adoption of the specific measures referred to in these questions.
‘The States can and already does exercise control over Aurigny through an agreed system of governance.
‘The independent report from PA Nyras concludes that the airline is generally well managed.’
Listed in the written answers are the main drivers of Aurigny’s operating losses, which are the changes arisen from the open skies policy, competition on the States subsidised Heathrow link run by Flybe, oil price increases and exchange rate fluctuations, and recruitment and retention challenges.
While STSB has committed itself to reducing Aurigny’s deficit, it has suggested that temporary measures of mitigation may not be ‘meaningful’, and the long-term consequences of permanent measures need to be fully investigated and carefully considered.
Ultimately, STSB is against any ‘knee-jerk reactions’ and wants to ensure the right steps and measures are taken to address the losses as effectively as possible.
