Time for runway debate to take off
NOBODY outside a select few politicians and senior officers has seen the full report from York Aviation, commissioned by the States’ Trading Supervisory Board, but a read of its conclusions, published this week, would tell a runway extension cynic all they need to know about the prospects of the Guernsey runway ever being extended.
Substantial costs to the airport, Aurigny losing £25m. a year, low fares benefitting islanders more than visitors, assumptions of a general economic boost unlikely, UK-wide connections damaged… Opponents of the plan have seized upon these findings to claim that very thing.
But the runway extension has become notorious for various versions of the ‘truth’ over whether it really would be a good thing for the island. Campaigners on either side find the arguments to suit their own version of the ‘facts’.
Some are already discrediting the York Aviation findings as quickly as they put up their own, and note that STSB's report unsurprisingly seems to strengthen its position.
But this is all heading towards the need for a debate sooner rather than later on the Guernsey runway – though one would be sceptical whether it could signal the end of the project once and for all. A debate in 2023 would almost inevitably conclude that this would not be the right time to progress the project, but such a vote, and those reasons, would not push the issue off the States agenda for ever.
So it’s possible to see the dilemma for the Committee for Economic Development, which is tasked with bringing the report back to the Assembly.
But it also feels appropriate to be talking about Guernsey’s aviation future when considering that of Alderney too, and so, whatever the problems inherent with timing, having that debate would have to be the best option.