Act immediately and pull Aurigny back from the brink

Subject to approval by the UK Civil Aviation Authority, the CemAir aircraft from South Africa could commence service, which will restore Aurigny’s capacity.

We heard from Kevin George, Aurigny’s chairman. This was the first time that I have seen the name, or the mention, of a chairman. I must apologise to Deputy Roffey, I have been under the impression that, as president of the STSB, being the owner of Aurigny, he and his committee were in charge of Aurigny. Mr George wrote to the STSB, Aurigny’s sole shareholder. Does this mean Aurigny is not owned by the taxpayers with Deputy Roffey in control, but merely a ‘sole shareholder’? The meaning escapes me.

Deputy Roffey states that his ‘committee carry out the shareholders function and the current level of service was not acceptable, but it is not his board’s role to run Aurigny and it was not trying to do so’.

The States is, however, the sole shareholder of this company, which would normally place them in a position of power.

STSB admits that it did sign off the fleet transition plan. Deputy Roffey’s answer to this disaster: ‘Aurigny has had four separate events, and I do feel for them, they have not articulated the problems as well as they could have’.

Well, quite frankly, I feel for the tourism industry and anyone that wishes to fly to and from Guernsey, and the new routes to Paris and Liverpool.

Meanwhile, Aurigny has announced that ultimately, if problems drag on, the airline is looking at a pre-planned reduction of services in June, describing that as a distinct possibility.

Finally, you could not make this up, but the Committee for Economic Development is commissioning a piece of work to conduct an air connectivity performance analysis study, which will look at the affordability, reliability and connectivity of air travel to Guernsey, aiming for the study to have concluded by the end of September.

Surely they have enough facts to hand to make a decision which could be acted upon immediately and pull Aurigny back from the brink.

TOM CASTLEDINE