Why so much cheaper to fly to Jersey?

It does not take a rocket scientist to know that this will make people choose Jersey if they are undecided on which island to visit.

Who is responsible for air links, as they need to wake up? Maybe the word competition springs to mind.

NAME AND ADDRESS WITHHELD.

Editor's footnote: A spokesperson for Aurigny replies:

Thank you for the opportunity to reply. It is true that the lowest, known as 'lead in' fares, being offered by EasyJet or BA from London Gatwick to Jersey are cheaper than our fares from London Gatwick to Guernsey. There are many reason for this, the primary ones are:

1. Economies of scale – both British Airways and EasyJet are far larger businesses and have larger aircraft than Aurigny so they can survive with much smaller profit margins on a given route than Aurigny can.

2. British Airways and EasyJet are currently in a battle for market share in the London to Jersey market. They are selling many seats at below the cost of providing them in a bid to win the greatest market share. We saw the same situation in the Guernsey to Southampton market in 2014 when Flybe and Blue Islands were selling seats below cost. The end result was that Flybe reduced their services from four flights a day to one, and, as we've seen in the news recently, may stop operating that route in the autumn.

A similar situation existed in the Guernsey to Gatwick market when Aurigny and Flybe were in competition which led to the withdrawal of Flybe from the market.

The fares that are available between Gatwick and Jersey today are not sustainable, though given that their Jersey services are a tiny fraction of their overall businesses, both EasyJet and BA could maintain these prices for a long time if they were determined to win the fight, or they could just walk away from the market if they felt that was a better option for their business.

In Aurigny's case, our Gatwick services represent half of everything we do and so our prices have to be sustainable or our business won't be. Our responsibility is to continue to provide services to Gatwick and other lifeline routes. We don't have the option of walking away from them, so our pricing has to be sustainable.

We have an agreement with the States of Guernsey to ensure that at least 63% of our seats to and from Gatwick are priced at no more than £147 return, inclusive of UK Air Passenger Duty of £13. This ensures that while our pricing is sustainable, we offer good value fares in high volumes and we don't exploit the market. Our fares also include a free luggage allowance of 20kg. The same allowance would cost an extra £18 with British Airways and £25 with EasyJet. Charges like these, of course, aren't factored into the advertised lead in fare to Jersey.