Blue Islands chairman Derek Coates, left, and Aurigny managing director Malcolm Hart discussing the air route licensing proposals. (Picture by Tom Tardif, 0792931)
AURIGNY and Blue Islands could merge to create a ‘major player’ airline, according to Derek Coates.
The Blue Islands chairman made the suggestion at a meeting yesterday to discuss Commerce and Employment’s air route licensing proposals.
He expressed concerns that they could hurt smaller airlines.
‘I believe this system will result in a dominant carrier and I believe it will be Flybe,’ said Mr Coates. ‘That way we lose control of our destiny and we are in their hands. I don’t wish for that as a Guernsey person.
‘One long-term solution would be a merger of Blue Islands and Aurigny to create an airline with the strength to be a major player,’ he said.
Speaking in front of an audience of States members, Mr Coates said the island must maintain control of its destiny by ensuring Guernsey-friendly airlines survived and were not killed off by monopolistic external companies.
That would happen, he said, if the States passed the proposals to adopt what he said amounted to an open skies policy, but which the department described as liberalisation.
He said it was a bad idea to allow a dominant airline to have control of when it flies.
‘We need all-year-round business links and if one dominant carrier takes over I can assure you the prices will not ultimately be cheap at all.
‘If we don’t have the cheapest prices for a short period while blood-letting occurs, then so be it – consider the long term.’
Aurigny managing director Malcolm Hart said they had not discussed the merger idea.
However, he was in agreement with his business rival and said the same had happened in other jurisdictions.
He said one thing worried him in particular.
‘The main thing that has burnt a hole in my soul is the concept of cherry-picking, those who would come here to operate only in the summer months and who don’t give a damn about the rest of the year.’
He said C&E’s proposals really were more open than claimed. ‘This is unfettered open skies. If a carrier has insurance in place they can fly whenever they like, however they like.’
Both argued that now was the worst time to adopt such a system, considering the economic climate and the fluctuating fuel prices.
The two men agreed that the proposal to hand responsibility for licensing to the Office of Utility Regulation was a good idea.
‘There has been a tendency for others to feel that there is some bias towards Aurigny because it is States-owned and regulated, so the move to the OUR is a good thing, we are both fully supportive of that,’ said Mr Hart.
Article posted on 20th June, 2009 - 2.29pm
4 Article Comments
oh look the man who is wasting a fortune on his free flights deal and hotel chain wants to take over the company that has served the islands for ever, what a great idea……. Or not. The sooner Mr Coates stops meddling with the status quo and sticks to selling his vitamins to people who fall for his marketing campaign that makes them think his pills will help them live longer the better, mmm vitamin C in a pill or an orange your choice, Screw The Islands or Aurigny your choice. If you are allowed one.
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dave
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Malcom Hart thinks Aurigny have the divine right to serve as the major Guernsey airline and his opinions fly in the face of any competition.
On the Radio Guernsey phone in yesterday, he was unable to control himself and uttered a swear word, not in keeping with a Sunday morning !
Does the States current “No Open Skys” policy breach the EU monopoly laws I wonder ?
It is interesting how some of these competition laws are brought forward by our government, whilst others are ignored.
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DTD
I think living on a small island it is eminently sensible to keep control of at least one airline UK hub slots and routes. It is our insurance policy considering the precarious state of most airlines in this current finacial crisis and you can either have our own airline or if that goes a dominant competitor owned outside the island and our control who will charge pretty much what they want. This is what happened when the States were stupid enough to give away our Telecoms Company to people from another place. The competition law has yet to come into force and until it does then airlines will continue to cherry pick what services they want to supply. Handing over regulation to the O.U.R is a must as the Guernsey states cannot be owner and regulator and will address the problem of cherry picking to some extent. As for the EU we are not in the EU so what they think about it is of no concern to us and long may that continue. What I am keen to avoid is the position where we have one dominant carrier who will see off all other competition just as has happened on our sea routes and who could eventually think that Guernsey is not profitable enough with just 61 thousand people who want to travel we would then be left with nothing. That is to scary to contemplate, we are finding more and more that we must take control of our own destiny whether it be fuel supplies, transport links, or our fiscal economy. History has shown us that when we are too dependant on others they invariably let us down. We do not have airlines queuing up to come to Guernsey to operate an all year round service, there may be a couple of charter companies that would want to cream off the lucrative summer months but that would make our existing airlines unviable which could cause them to collapse.
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