What benefits have islanders had from the Blue Islands-Flybe franchise agreement?

I rightly criticised the merger whilst commending the actions taken by the Channel Islands Competition Regulatory Authority to fully investigate this issue. If Guernsey citizens can remember, the investigation by Cicra prompted the CEOs of both companies to reply and they detailed the many ‘benefits’ to local Guerns and the tourism industry.

However I, like many others, took their big, long letters with their many ‘benefits’ with a pinch of salt.

So why am I bringing this up two years later? Well, I have been living abroad for the last three months and, due to unforeseen circumstances, I needed to get back to Guernsey. So on Friday 26 October I checked the websites of Aurigny, Blue Islands and Flybe for a flight leaving Southampton on Sunday 4 November.

Aurigny had nothing available, so I must presume that Aurigny had a full flight for that day, which must be a first in quite a while but at least that might help balance the books. Or probably not. So I was left with Flybe and Blue Islands.

I checked out Blue Islands first: The price for the latest flight on the aforementioned date was over £200 and the other flights were over £150! Yep, you read that correctly... between £150 and £250 for a 45-minute flight.

But I should not be concerned yet as there was still Flybe, my saviour from this aviation fiasco. So I then checked Flybe’s website and when I put in the above date I was magically transported to the Blue Islands website and the flight prices of £150-£250 appeared again. Turns out this flight is operated by Blue Islands.

You see readers, I am confused, as I fail to see what ‘benefits’ locals are getting from this business merger between Blue Islands and Flybe?

I really hope the CEOs of these companies can explain to me and the Guernsey public what these illusionary ‘benefits’ are.

Furthermore, perhaps the CEOs can also try to justify the obscene amount required to pay to get back home? I anticipate that one argument that the CEOs might use is to book far in advance to get the best fares. Maybe the CEOs live very predictable lifestyles, but most people’s lives change and unforeseen circumstances happen which mean quick, cheap access back to Guernsey.

This letter is also directed to Cicra, the organisation that I commended in my original letter.

What have you actually been doing for the last two years? Blue Islands and Flybe have colluded and have decreased competition between airlines while taking advantage of Channel Islanders and you have done nothing about it. What have you found out in your investigation?

Is your investigation even complete? Did you even bother doing an investigation in the first place? Actually, what is the point of Cicra if they allow this type of behaviour to take place and do nothing to protect Channel Island citizens? I do not know who is to blame – the airlines who are taking advantage or Cicra for not protecting the citizens in the first place, but this is becoming ridiculous and the only advice I have to locals is this: Either learn to swim or get a boat...

PS: I did eventually get home a couple of days later. Turns out spending two more days in a hotel and other associated costs is still far cheaper than the aforementioned airline flights...

Name and address withheld.

Sarah Livestro, legal director of Cicra, responds: Thank you very much for your email and the attached letter. The States of Guernsey has excluded certain sectors of the economy from Cicra’s remit. This means that Cicra can’t use its competition law powers in those sectors. One of the excluded sectors is the airline industry. So when we opened our investigation into Blue Islands and Flybe, this was a Jersey investigation only. It only looked at possible anti-competitive behaviour insofar as it related to flights to and from Jersey and we could only consider the impact on the Jersey market and Jersey consumers.

We haven’t got any power to address the situation your reader is describing, which relates to flights in and out of Guernsey.

In relation to our Jersey investigation, as with any investigation that we carry out, we had to consider whether the benefits that we could achieve through continuing with formal action would outweigh the costs of the investigation. We make this decision by using our prioritisation principles. A decision was taken to suspend the Jersey investigation, based on that assessment. You can find a media release, media briefing note and case closure statement on our website here, www.cicra.gg/media-releases/.

If you’d like to discuss this or if you need any further information, then please do get in touch.

A spokesman from Blue Islands responds: Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your reader’s letter. The agreement between Blue Islands and Flybe is a franchise, not a merger. A franchise is a standard business model used by some of the world’s largest brands. The format is perfectly defined by the British Franchise Association as ‘...the granting of a licence by one person (the franchisor) to another (the franchisee), which entitles the franchise to own and operate their own business under the brand, systems, and proven business model of the franchisor.’

Blue Islands remains a locally owned airline and retains independent control of its scheduling, routes, frequency and timings for all its flights and sets its own fares on every single flight.

There are many benefits to franchise including exposure to potential new visitors benefiting the local economies through Flybe UK brand presence and distribution, lowest fare options (Southampton – Guernsey now has fares from £39.99 one way) and availability of ‘through tickets’ with UK APD savings to UK and European destinations on the Flybe network. The benefits are explored in more detail in a paper prepared for Cicra (an investigation which was subsequently closed) which can be found on www.blueislands.com.

Sunday 4 November was the end of half term, as such Blue Islands-operated flights from Southampton to Guernsey were extremely busy, as, we are pleased to say, were many Blue Islands-operated scheduled flights, which are all sold though www.flybe.com.

We are sorry we could not satisfy the correspondent’s travel expectations on this day.

At the time of receiving the invitation to respond to this letter (11.28am Thursday 1 November) for comparison, we reviewed flights from Gatwick to Jersey for Sunday 4 November. All five British Airways flights were full on Sunday 4 November with only two out of five available to book on Monday 5 November, with seats priced from £238 (one way Economy Basic fare).

Easyjet offered three Gatwick -Jersey flights on Sunday 4 November, one was sold out and the 15.20 departure was priced at £302.02 (one way). It seems like it wasn’t only Blue Islands-operated flights that were busy or commanding higher fares that day.

While a franchise does offer many benefits to passengers, being able to book travel around a week before departure on one of the busiest Sundays of the year, at the lowest fares, is not one of them.