The wait goes on for passengers

The president of the States’ Trading Supervisory Board Peter Ferbrache told deputies that it was unacceptable and tarnishing the island’s reputation.

He promised action and a spending programme, saying it was a priority for the board. Up to £1.5m. will be spent on new scanning equipment.

At about the same time, the airport said that its contractors and staff recognised that ‘service levels had fallen’ following tougher regulations and they were committed to sorting it out swiftly.

Regular travellers and the owners of hotels and guest houses breathed a sigh of relief. Once a problem is acknowledged and accepted it is halfway to being solved.

Unfortunately, in the intervening weeks the message has been less positive and any improvements hard to identify.

Passengers who complained last weekend about hour-long queues to get through security were told that airport staff had checked the CCTV and it took ‘only 30 minutes at most’.

It seems that the private contractors, G4S, were able to operate only one security lane that day because of staff shortages. Add that to the dated equipment and more invasive searches and it is a recipe for delay.

There was little contrition, only advice for passengers that they should ‘always give plenty of time to go through security, as this can take time’.

So much for the customer always being right.

Islanders have been duly unimpressed. Thirty minutes to get through domestic airport security for what is often a 15-minute flight is far too long.

Instead of passing off the responsibility to passengers by getting them to the airport earlier and earlier there needs to be a return to the mea culpa attitude of Deputy Ferbrache from just a few weeks ago.

More staff need to be quickly recruited and trained and the promised body scan equipment and new X-ray machines sourced and installed.

Guernsey has enough long-standing issues surrounding its air and sea links. Self-inflicted ones like this need to be quickly resolved.