Tourism sector bears brunt of high airfares

I recently had to cut my holiday short in Thailand and fly back to Guernsey for a family medical emergency. For this I had to change my tickets with Emirates airlines from Bangkok to London, which is a 12-hour flight and the cost to carry out this change was £50 administration fee. You can only imagine my disappointment when changing my ticket from London Gatwick to Guernsey with Aurigny, a 45-minute flight, when I was charged £149.

This is scandalous from a State-owned monopoly.

I was under the impression that in August 2012 the States of Guernsey had outlawed monopolies yet here they are allowing one of their own companies to profit excessively from the very Guernsey people who own the airline.

Yes, I know the powers that be and Aurigny management will say that anyone can open up an airline and compete but no, this is not the case is it? The States of Guernsey's chosen representatives on the various bodies running transport locally and the Airport will not allow another carrier on the London Gatwick route. It is okay to say that easyJet did not make any application to run a service, but they were not encouraged to do so by our States' departments or deputies in charge of this.

Wake up Commerce and Employment, don't hide the fact that Guernsey tourism is dead and buried due to high costs of travel and unreliable carriers.

Take a look at Jersey, go there and see how thriving their town is. Their nightlife, their infrastructure is far more organised than ours is.

Who really wants to pay extortionate travel costs to come to Guernsey when you can travel to our neighbouring island at a fraction of the cost?

It's time that the States Scrutiny Department looked into our own States departments' monopolies. Let's hope that after the next election we have some positive-thinking, proactive deputies who will really strive to wake this island up and move things into the 21st century, unlike the ones we now have.

MICK DE CARTERET,

La Fregondee,

Le Pont,

St Peter's.

Editor's footnote: Euan Mahy, Aurigny's media relations manager replies:

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to reply to this letter. Aurigny offers some excellent deals to its passengers and our cheapest London Gatwick single fare is £47. Here, the ticket price makes up just over half this sum, the remainder is taxes and charges. This fare is readily bookable in advance, which is what many of our passengers do to enjoy fast and efficient air travel to London's second airport with Aurigny, at a bargain price. We have a guarantee with our shareholder that 63% of our London Gatwick flights are available for £67 or less, excluding charges and taxes.

Your reader didn't supply booking details so I can only assume that he purchased a fare similar to the one quoted and then had to change it at short notice. Emirates charged him a £50 administration fee whereas our online change fee is £30. This is in line with the administration fee charged by many low-cost airlines, so we are confident this is a fair and competitive fee. But, on top of that, there will inevitably be, for short-notice changes, a fare uplift. This is because the price of flights generally increases as the departure time gets closer, leaving only the more expensive fare classes close to the travel date.

Your reader should remember that relatively speaking, short-haul flights like those operated by Aurigny can be more expensive than long haul. The landing fees and taxes may be similar but there is more wear and tear on aircraft. We provide an enviable number of connections for islanders to a range of destinations and this frequency also adds to costs.

A common misconception surrounds our ownership, not by the States of Guernsey, but by its Treasury and Resources department. We were bought by them in 2003, just months after British Airways announced it was stopping its Guernsey to London Gatwick service. By buying Aurigny, T&R secured the island's lifeline Gatwick slots. That decision proved wise a decade later, when Flybe made a commercial decision (to stem losses) to pull out of the London Gatwick market. Had access to London Gatwick solely rested with the market place, it is questionable whether islanders would still be able to fly there. Aurigny is proud to be able to offer business and leisure travellers from Guernsey assured access to Gatwick.

Aurigny was never cited as a factor in easyJet's decision not to pursue an application to fly to Guernsey. But, as an airline, we support the local air transport licensing system, not an open skies policy. The experience of the Isle of Man shows open skies can create a market for cheaper fares, but with many disadvantages. An incoming airline will operate fewer rotations in the seasonal peaks and compete for the prime slots but they may well pull out in the less profitable off season. This offers Guernsey little security of service and more limited accessibility to London and other regional airports. Aurigny would suffer in the inevitable price war yet is mandated to fly to Gatwick six times on weekdays and five times at weekends, year round. We have expanded our London offering too, by flying to London City, and this route is performing above expectations.

easyJet is currently engaged in a price war in Jersey with British Airways, hence the availability of below-cost tickets. As a local company, with more than 300 employees, we pay a significant amount of tax to the States of Guernsey; easyJet wouldn't do that.

Aurigny has willingly given evidence to an ongoing States Scrutiny Committee review into strategic air links. As to tourism, Aurigny works actively with Visit Guernsey to market the island to UK customers, and their figures show that so far this year, staying visitor numbers are increasing. This bodes well for the future of our tourist economy and we are delighted to play our part in that.