Bid to force Aurigny off Jersey and Southampton routes

Tuesday 29 October 2019

Aurigny is "misusing and wasting taxpayers' money" by running competing services to Jersey and Southampton, according to two Guernsey politicians aiming to order the airline off the routes.

Deputies Neil Inder and Barry Paint have made an attempt to stop States of Guernsey-owned Aurigny flying those routes in an amendment to the island’s Budget, which will be debated next week.

It comes after news that Aurigny's predicted losses for 2019 had gone from £4.4m to £7.6m, while losses for 2020 could reach £10million.  

Deputy Inder is asking questions about the airline’s finances, and has added to his criticism of its management through an amendment that would stand Aurigny down from routes the company decided to service earlier this year. 

Pictured: Deputy Inder wants Aurigny to publish its full management accounts. 

"The States of Guernsey has a lack of clarity on how Aurigny’s losses continue to grow, not least through the refusal of the business to publish its full management accounts," said Deputies Inder and Paint. 

"However the limited information that is in the public domain indicates that Aurigny moving into the competitive operation of two routes already being operated (specifically Guernsey-Jersey and Guernsey-Southampton) earlier this year will only serve to increase those losses. 

"Such a misuse and waste of taxpayers’ money is unacceptable, not least in the context of the business’ increasing losses.

"The deregulation of the air route licensing framework (agreed by the States of Deliberation in July 2018, implemented in September 2018) was not intended to lead to a deliberate haemorrhage of tax payers’ money by a States-owned business competing with other operators on non-lifeline routes that are already being adequately serviced."

Pictured: Deputy Paint said Aurigny is wasting money on the Jersey and Southampton routes. 

The Deputies see this amendment as an important intervention ahead of a full review of the island's air links framework, as proposed in the Budget. 

"In the interim an additional shareholder objective to prevent Aurigny operating on routes that are already being serviced should be put in place with immediate effect, and to be reviewed only at the conclusion of the P&R Review. That is the only way to prevent a further misuse of tax payers’ money in this way and to begin to stem the losses the business is making at the public’s expense.

"It is essential that the States’ Trading Supervisory Board, whose role it is to protect the interests of the shareholder (in this case the States of Guernsey on behalf of the community), acts decisively and immediately in this way."