There is no need for a gold-plated airport upgrade

The local business community was encouraged by the appointment of Mr Bezuidenhout and his chairman Kevin George, hoping it would bring fresh perspective and an air of realism as to what Aurigny can achieve. For the Aurigny CEO to now claim that extending Alderney’s runway would help ‘reduce the financial burden on the taxpayer’ is pure nonsense and sadly reminiscent of the spin regularly drip fed to the public by Aurigny’s previous management.

The desire to rationalise Aurigny’s fleet is understandable, and Mr Bezuidenhout’s suggestion that the company might choose to operate only ATRs (while disposing of the Embraer jet and Dorniers) makes complete sense. Nevertheless, suggesting that SoG wastes circa £30m. on Alderney’s airport, providing a lengthened runway but only 23m wide is, I suspect, going to incur greater losses for Aurigny and even more weather disruption for those travelling to/from Alderney.

Aurigny has conceded that, even if the proposed 1050m x 23m runway in Alderney (Option C) goes ahead, its ATR-72s would operate half full, and with similar crosswind limits to the Dornier due to the restricted runway width. Add to that the notorious updraughts and down-draughts on Alderney’s final approach, coupled with the wind shear warnings likely to be generated by the ATR’s more sophisticated Ground Proximity Warning System, and you have a recipe for further service disruption and continued losses. As the holder of a Public Service Obligation contract, how long before Aurigny then starts haemorrhaging money again, returning to the States with a demand for increased subsidies?

The idea that somehow a community of 2,000 people can best be served by operating 72-seat aircraft (half empty due to payload restrictions) is frankly absurd. If Aurigny doesn’t wish to subcontract the route to a partner airline with smaller aircraft then surely the PSO should be broken open and put out to tender once again? There are other operators with suitable equipment (Air Alderney with the Islander and Trislander, SkyBus or Loganair with Twin Otters and Islanders) who I am sure would express a keen interest in taking the annual £2m. PSO subsidy off Aurigny’s hands, should Mr Bezuidenhout decide to dispose of the two Dornier 228s presently serving Alderney.

I have a great deal of respect and admiration for most of Aurigny’s hard-working and loyal employees. What we are seeing however is yet more plans by their management to commit resources to a loss-making idea and another attempt to cement Aurigny’s monopoly on local routes.

I can understand the appeal to Alderney residents of having Guernsey taxpayers fork out circa £30m. for a gold-plated airport upgrade. By all means widen and resurface the existing 800m runway in Alderney (Options A or B). Wouldn’t it be wiser though to put the remaining funds (£15m. plus) towards extending Guernsey’s own runway instead? At least then we could attract serious network carriers like British Airways and EasyJet, able to offer meaningful connectivity and competitive low fares for residents of the whole Bailiwick (but perhaps more importantly attracting increased visitor numbers with those major airlines’ brand and marketing clout). Aurigny would then be able to concentrate on operating an efficient single fleet of four or five ATRs, flying regional lifeline routes to those airports which other carriers may be unable or unwilling to serve from Guernsey (eg. Southampton, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Exeter, East Midlands, Leeds). A happy compromise, and one which I would have thought makes life much simpler for Mr Bezuidenhout and his team.

Deputy Helyar recently made a comment to the Guernsey Press to the effect that it is STSB, not him as treasury lead, who is responsible for the Alderney business case and its associated costs. Recent comments by the Aurigny CEO should therefore be taken as a wake-up call to Deputy Helyar and the rest of P&R. Ultimately it is he that controls the purse strings, and it will now be tough for Deputy Helyar to convince me and others that we should bring in GST on the one hand, whilst at the same time choosing to blow another £30m. plus on Alderney – just to (quote from Mr Bezuidenhout) ‘make things easier’ for Aurigny.

Deputies beware! If you support Option C in Alderney don’t say that you haven’t been warned of the consequences.

Alderney certainly deserves investment in its airport infrastructure, but surely a dose of reality is needed rather than yet another hugely expensive bespoke project to please one operator – Aurigny.

TIM ROBINS