Short-term fix might help to develop future

Will the airlines and Condor Ferries be besieged by potential visitors, holidaymakers or people wanting to reconnect with family? Will islanders be desperate to get away for similar reasons? Or will caution over Covid win out, with demand for travel suppressed?

On the face of it, the codeshare deal announced by Aurigny and Blue Islands yesterday seems to make sense. Neither airline can accurately estimate the demand at this stage. And it seems unlikely that, despite the skeleton service offered over the past 13 months, both could rebound rapidly into offering what we would recall as being a full pre-Covid schedule.

But travellers may also recall that codesharing on inter-island services broke up ‘mutually’ in 2016.

So it is interesting to see two, if not sworn rivals, then at least ‘robust competitors’, prepared to work together for an indefinite period to rebuild transport links.

It is understood that the new boss of Aurigny, Nico Bezuidenhout, played an important role in moving to thaw relations between the two carriers, and it seems a common-sense approach has been taken, for which both should be applauded.

However does the move signal a longer-term change for island air travel? Instead of short-term price wars, will we see two operators, with island interests paramount, working together to secure both their own futures, and that of our islands?

In their joint statement, CEOs of the two airlines talk about efficiencies to be gained from collaboration and ‘ensuring viability and sustainability' of essential island infrastructure.

Although competition remains a key element of the codeshare deal, the sceptical traveller will wonder about the potential implications for fares.

Those not taking to the air at this stage may ponder more on the future of air transport for the islands and whether a short-term solution might actually prove to be a longer-term option to cut losses and build much-needed sustainability into the island’s infrastructure.