Yvonne Burford’s proposal directed Policy & Resources to investigate licensing a single airline to use a fleet of small aircraft – probably Twin Otters – to re-establish a route network between Guernsey, Jersey and Alderney, as well as between Alderney and Southampton.
It also directed P&R to work up plans for a more basic development in Alderney which would replace its crumbling runway with ‘the lowest possible cost and most practical and pragmatic’ option as soon as possible.
Deputy Burford’s vision was turned down in December 2022 in favour of a more ambitious redevelopment of Alderney Airport. But it was approved unanimously yesterday by an Assembly increasingly desperate for a solution, after tenders for its previously preferred option came in £13m. over budget.
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‘The investigation into what we can do in Alderney will be quicker, cheaper and not drift into yet more flights of fancy,’ she said.
‘A significant part of the reason why we have not progressed with Alderney Airport this term has been over-ambition. It reached its apogee with the frankly ludicrous decision to put a 72-seater aircraft into an island of 2,000 people.
‘In order to have some chance of keeping Alderney connected, we need to bring ambition back down to the ground for a soft landing.’
In 2019 the previous States agreed a £12m. project to refurbish the runway. But in 2022 the current Assembly doubled that budget and approved extending the length of the runway to accommodate ATR aircraft and building new passenger facilities. That idea was recently abandoned when the cost soared to at least £37m.
Deputy Burford was confident that her alternative plan would bring the cost of the project back under its current budget and possibly allow the budget to be reduced.
The second part of her vision could lead to a return of the kind of inter-island route network which Aurigny used to operate, which she said would benefit Guernsey, Alderney and Jersey.
‘A single event 20 years ago played a starring role in where we are today. It was certainly the reason we have subsequently shelled out millions subsidising the Alderney route,’ she said.
‘That event, of course, was the removal of the sole operator protection from the Guernsey-Jersey route, thus opening it up to competition. And with that ideological decision the problems began.
‘A route network comprising purely of routes in and out of Alderney is too small to run a coherent, break-even operation that sufficiently occupies crews and aircraft. It has no opportunity to spread all the fixed costs of running an aircraft type and the fleet is so small that redundancy is either non-existent or extremely expensive.
‘However, if one could bring together again all of the inter-island routes, all of a sudden it makes for a viable route network for a small fleet of small aircraft such as Twin Otters to operate a service.’
The States also authorised P&R to set up a commission to look into the constitutional and economic relationship between Guernsey and Alderney and present an initial report by the end of this year and final recommendations by the end of next year.
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