‘Airport likely to need States subsidy in future’ - ports director

Colin Le Ray is due to step down from the role next week after a career as a civil servant since the age of 16 and working with the airport, and later the harbours, since 2003.

His latter years have been dogged by vociferous complaints from local boat owners about rising mooring fees.

He said the argument had always been that the harbours are more profitable while the airport lost money, and he believed this was accepted politically.

‘The harbour has a more diversified income,’ he said.

‘It relies on commercial activity, marinas and property, and each of those functions makes a significant contribution to the whole of the income at the harbour.

‘At the airport we’re over-reliant on just the commercial income. We have less property and we have no equivalent of a marina to generate revenues.’

Mr Le Ray said he understood the sensitivities of boat owners.

‘The proposals that we’ve put in for RPI plus 3% [next year] were deliberately capped at a lower level than had originally been proposed, to try to mitigate some of the concern that was coming back from some mooring holders – not from all, from some.

‘Finding a way forward for the next two or three years, where we can start to contain the increases to a more affordable level, could actually be quite important.

‘And it could be important for reasons that perhaps are not readily obvious – if, for example, GST comes in, it almost certainly would apply to mooring fees.’

Meanwhile, efforts are being made to broaden revenue generation at the airport, with a working group looking at improving the facilities available to passengers, and possibly bringing in other businesses to broaden what is on offer.

However, even that was unlikely to be enough to meet its needs, he said.

‘I think ultimately the States will probably need to take a view on whether or not there needs to be some form of subsidy for the airport, particularly just to recognise that it’s got a very different economic enablement – what it does and how it does it,’ said Mr Le Ray.

He took over as managing director in 2017, merging the duties of airport and harbour directors which he himself had suggested after noting the similarities between the administrative workings of the ports.

‘It just felt that both of us were reinventing the wheel all the time, and there might have been an opportunity to try to create a synergy,’ he said.

Among his disappointments concerning the harbour has been the failure to progress the Future Harbour project and plans to create a 24-hour marina, the latter of which was put on hold only recently. But he hopes that they are not gone forever.

‘I’m still quite confident that the work that we did will stand the test of time,’ he said.

‘Obviously, the numbers will change as time passes, but actually I think both schemes can sit on the shelf and can quite easily be drawn off and can proceed when the timing is better.’

He saw more success at the airport, taking over the reins of director just as the new terminal was nearing completion and he went on to oversee an £80m. investment in the reconstruction of the paved surfaces.

• Read more from Colin Le Ray in this weekend’s Press.