Fresh life breathed into runway debate

Yesterday Economic Development president Charles Parkinson gave an overview of the Frontier Economics report which would have been music to the ears of those supporters of an extension.

If, and it’s a big if, the additional visitors and business was delivered as expected, it could deliver a net gain of £21m. over 40 years.

The committee is now going away to work up a policy letter that aims to take account of the very different travel landscape that could result from the Covid-19 crisis.

It would be foolhardy to think that travel habits, and the airline industry, were simply going to quickly reset back to the same patterns as before.

Supporters of a longer runway have never yet won the case that it would lead to greater travel links and more visitors, the collapse of Flybe just adding further questions about who would fly here, the quality and desirability of the routes and crucially how Aurigny fits into the picture.

Quasi-open skies was failing to deliver any sustained advantages and now there is talk from the more protectionist members to look out more for the States-owned airline and allow it to operate as an economic enabler rather than a faux commercial enterprise.

A runway extension in a time of recession would be a bold bet on the type of local and global recovery we will experience.

Economic Development is going to have its work cut out to make the case, but this Assembly and the island is going to need game-changer decisions to avoid a prolonged downturn.

Unlike Jersey, which has an embedded tourist offering waiting to get going once the borders open, Guernsey was still struggling to identify what it wanted to offer visitors.

The business community is clearly won over by the longer runway campaign, but everyone will be reassessing how they operate in light of the lessons learnt from the current crisis and how technology has changed working practices.

Guernsey needs to make sure it is working on an offering that is fit for the post Covid-19 norm.