The Economic Development Committee said that it will take the Air Policy Framework, agreed in 2021, back to the States.
It is due to ‘expire’ at the end of the year.
‘The aviation and economic environment has evolved significantly since then, and the committee considers that not all of that framework is relevant and indeed may now be in conflict with the States’ 2018 air connectivity objectives and the immediate needs of industry and community,’ said president Sasha Kazantseva-Miller.
A ‘new approach to air connectivity’ will also address how to fund route development and support packages, she said, including a clear mechanism for funding, better monitoring of statistics, performance incentivisation and marketing across routes.
Deputy Kazantseva-Miller said that the current framework directed that linking to an international hub airport was a key objective and it decided to move early on Heathrow, given it would be a multi-year project.
She was responding to formal written questions from Deputy Andy Cameron, who was also attempting to uncover the level of financial support offered to British Airways to bring back a Heathrow link for the island.
The committee has once again resisted that question, saying it could not override confidentiality clauses in the contract with the airline. It would not reveal either this year’s predicted spend or the total sum over the course of the agreement, but did say that it had made money available for 2026 by changing the timing of projects and recruitment for its work in business, innovation and skills areas. It told Deputy Cameron that it would continue to engage with the States Trading Supervisory Board to understand the impact of the BA service on Aurigny – which has already been claimed to set the local airline on the way to £5m. losses this year.
It also noted that when the island last had a Heathrow service in 2019 total capacity for London was more than 530,000 seats, but now, even with the BA service, it has fallen to 492,000.
Economic Development is hoping to grow traffic across all London routes with better consumer choice and competition across three airports.
STSB and Aurigny were involved in work to frame the new air policy, the committee said, in seeking to secure stronger connectivity, greater resilience for lifeline services, and better clarity on Aurigny’s role as a strategic infrastructure asset.
Economic Development also told Deputy Cameron that it remained in talks with other airlines about additional routes, and if introduced, they would attract route development support in some fashion as ‘a standard policy tool’.
You need to be logged in to comment.