Making Aurigny affordable to whom?
ONE might think that the work undertaken in the recently published Independent Air Connectivity and Performance Review, conducted by Frontier Economics, was merely repeating the work done, or that should have been done, on a strategic review of Aurigny commissioned back in 2016.
At the time air and sea connectivity was described as the island’s ‘number one strategic policy challenge’ and the review was aimed at making ‘material and far-reaching policy recommendations on the airline’s direction, particularly as an economic enabler’.
Ultimately the review got nowhere. The six-person panel was split down the middle on their recommendations.
Now Economic Development is looking at connectivity, reliability and affordability. Frontier has demonstrated that people are generally happy with the island’s connectivity. Reliability was fine, until Aurigny’s ongoing ‘Black Swan’ events of last year, unhappily also seeming to stretch into this. Which leaves affordability.
There was a thought in 2016 that the review would agree an attractive price point for Aurigny fares, until it didn’t.
However there can be little doubt that islanders would be more prepared to pay a subsidy for the airline from their taxes if it offered cheaper flights in return.
But it would be intriguing to hear how Economic Development – the clue is in the name – would justify cheap getaways for islanders, which are a very desirable commodity, when the prospect of Aurigny and the airport becoming ‘economic enablers’ is raised once again, as seems likely.