Responsibility lies with the chairman

The chairman and shareholders are ultimately responsible for the management of Aurigny – if they appoint a CEO and board of directors who prove incompetent, it is their responsibility. They are not ‘independent’ as Deputy Roffey suggests, but answer to the shareholders and board.

The failure of the Aurigny CEO and board of directors is apparent to everybody, except it seems the chairman and shareholders.

Doug Johnstone

Editor’s note: Deputy Peter Roffey, president of the States’ Trading Supervisory Board, responds:

I am well aware of the STSB’s responsibility as the shareholder representative in respect of Aurigny. I am equally aware of our powers.

The point I was making was that we do not either actively manage or direct Aurigny. Rather this role is carried out by the board of the airline. It is a States-owned airline, not a States-run airline.

Of course if we think the board and/or its executive management team are failing in that task, we could always replace the board. That is the nuclear option. It is one I would not hesitate to take if I felt it was in the best interests of the people of Guernsey. But I do not.

I fully agree with those who say the level of resilience offered by the airline in recent months has fallen very far below what the people of Guernsey have a right to expect. The question is the speediest and most effective way to address that.

In my view this is by insisting on swift and decisive action from the current regime to ensure the airline has the capacity to deliver its offer, in a way which has sufficient resilience to avoid the sort of shortcomings we have seen recently. That is my current focus and I am pursuing it with all of the energy at my disposal.

I accept others will believe that is the wrong judgement call and would prefer to see ‘heads roll’. I respect their opinion, and understand it in some respects, but I am duty-bound to use my judgement over how best to rectify matters in the speediest way possible.

In the meantime, in our role as shareholder, the STSB is commissioning an independent, expert inquiry. This will focus, firstly, on whether the current timetable can be reliably delivered using the planned fleet of five ATRs, with the require high degree of resilience.

It will also look at why the fleet transition process has led to periods where that resilience has fallen well below the levels Guernsey has a right to expect.

This hopefully will provide some assurance that appropriate steps are being taken to ensure we see a return to the levels of service and reliability that we are used to.