Aurigny Air Services

[Ayline]

Long live Aurigny

I would like to start by saying that despite my user name I do not work for Aurigny nor am I related to anyone that does. The only connection I have with Aurigny is that I am a Guernsey tax payer. You raise some interesting points Cloud1. Firstly you state as regards the Guernsey-Manchester route that "Flybe made clear from day one was only a summer route" which isn't true as Flybe actually operated the Guernsey-Manchester last winter. It was terminated on the 7th January 2008 leaving Aurigny to run the service through the lean months of January and February. Once the summer came Flybe was back on the route to take the cream of the summer traffic only to terminate the route again as soon as Autumn approached. Secondly the Dublin routes and Paris routes were promoted as year round routes and I quote from the Flybe website: "Flybe, Europe’s largest regional airline, has today announced the addition of a brand new, three times a week non-stop route to Dublin for Guernsey passengers effective 7th June. The year round route will hugely benefit both business and leisure travellers who can now book the non-stop service to the Irish capital" and "Flybe, Europe’s largest regional low cost airline, is following up the launch of its 2008 summer schedule with a new year-round, four times a week route to the French capital city of Paris, effective 11th July". At the time of the announcement of the Dublin route Blue Islands had been advertising their new CI-Dublin route but that was axed before it got off the ground due to the forthcoming competition from Flybe. The year round Blue Islands service to Paris (Beauvais) was understandably axed the day before Flybe started Guernsey-Paris (a route which incidentally Flybe operated for barely 3 months). Guernsey would probably still have a year round Blue Islands Paris service had it not been for the bully boy tactics of Flybe. It appears that whenever another carrier decides to make a go of a new route Flybe comes along and operates the route for a few months simply to stamp out the competition from the smaller operators. Turning to airfares now lets take next week as an example this is what Flybe will charge you for a day return flight from Guernsey to Gatwick (Aurigny fares in brackets): Mon: £249.98 (£217), Tue: £283.98 (£195), Wed: £187.98 (£161), Thurs: £186.98 (£161) and Fri: £233.98 (£217). On every day Aurigny is cheaper you get a newspaper and a choice of hot and cold drinks and you don't have to pay £15.98 for the privilege of placing a bag in the hold. One wonders what the Flybe fares would be if there was no Aurigny operating on the route. Flybe keep expressing their concern as to how much Aurigny is costing the Guernsey taxpayers. I have never known an airline to show so much concern for taxpayers! The Guernsey taxpayers don't seem to share Flybe's concern as when polled in the summer 80% of Guernsey taxpayers stated that they wanted the government to retain ownership of the airline. Guernsey residents haven't forgotten what happened to their Guernsey-Heathrow link - it was axed by the sole operator in exchange for £10M worth of Heathrow slots. Wasn't Flybe asking the taxpayers of Guernsey and Jersey for financial assistance to help in the launch of the Paris route? As I understand it Flybe were given financial incentives by the States of Guernsey to help them start the Dublin and Paris routes and there is no guarante that we will see either of these routes return. To conclude I certainly wouldn't be delighted to see Flybe pull out of the island. I understand that they have to make a profit and can't operate loss making routes but they need to do more to earn the respect of islanders and that can't be achieved for instance by placing adverts in the local paper making negative remarks about Aurigny - remember the one about G-JOEY?