This Is Guernsey

By Nick Mann

CONDOR is facing a difficult year in the UK market. Passenger movement figures from March to June show a consistent downturn in numbers carried by sea compared to the same period last year.

UK air passenger movements were up for each month apart from May, while the total number of people travelling on all routes by both air and sea was up 1.7% on last year.

‘With the UK routes, we’re finding it a difficult year; there has been a year-on-year decrease in the capacity in Guernsey and I think that may reflect the present trend in fewer visitors from the UK,’ said Condor’s Channel Island general manager Jan Milner.

‘We’ve got quite heavy competition from airlines and maybe we’re feeling the effect of that. Our position seems to reflect the overall UK holiday market.’

Recently firms have been dumping cheap holidays on the market in an attempt to stimulate growth.

Sea figures between the UK and France have also generally slumped by 15%.

‘We seem to be in a difficult environment and I’ve heard all sorts of explanations: changing mortgage rates, petrol prices.’

There is also anecdotal evidence in the industry that following a hot UK summer, people travel less the following year.

‘It seems to be a difficult year and I think everybody’s working hard, including VisitGuernsey and the airlines, to try to promote business into the island,’ said Mr Milner.

He added the figures also reflected the trend for Jersey.

‘We hope we can make some recovery in the August and September figures.’

Monthly totals for passenger sea movements between the islands reflected changes in circumstances in the routes with the loss of Emeraude, he said.

‘Our figures for inter-island year-to-date are up year on year and we’re seeing a steady growth in that figure.

‘Last year Emeraude brought Solidor 4 here and ran outside Jersey quite a lot of the time; that capacity has gone, so you would expect a downturn, but our figures are currently up.’

He said that the French route was seeing growth, but the Emeraude pull-out meant the figures in May started reflecting less capacity.

A spokesman for Flybe said that passenger movement figures demonstrated the importance of air travel to Guernsey for both residents and tourists.

‘The number of inter-island passengers by air has seen a marked increase over the last year, although FlyBe is still disappointed its desire to operate an inter-island service, while welcomed by the Jersey authorities, has not been fully licensed by the Guernsey Transport Board.’

Aurigny experienced a 42% increase in passenger figures in 2004 over the same four months last year.

‘This is very encouraging and supports our introduction of the larger 66-seater ATR aircraft on our regional services,’ said managing director Malcolm Hart.

‘Carryings on our Gatwick route have risen by 16.5% compared to British Airways over the same period last year, further justifying the States decision to buy the airline.’

The company’s Guernsey to Bristol route is up 128% and Guernsey to East Midlands up by 138%.

Article posted on 6th August, 2004 - 12.00am