Flybe may demand £100,000 to pay for airport disruption
Saturday 7th February 2009, 9:29AM GMT.
FLYBE is likely to be seeking more than £100,000 in compensation for last weekend’s disruption and the figure will climb if Guernsey Airport again fails to provide adequate fire cover for its operations.
General manager market development Ian Taylor said the airline would get its money back.
‘We advised the airport and Public Services Department of our initial claim for last week’s disruption, which was £83,000,’ he said.
‘But this could well be in excess of £100,000 once we have received all claims. So, if this weekend’s action goes ahead, we will be compiling our costs over the weekend and we will be claiming the money back. It is regrettable, but necessary.’
Flybe is planning to run a normal service over the weekend, having subcontracted an ATR aircraft to cover its schedule if its Dash 8 planes are grounded due to understaffing at the airport fire station.
‘The airport has not issued anything definite,’ said Mr Taylor (pictured). ‘Only that disruption this weekend is probable. So we have taken steps to resolve the problem.’
- To read Guernsey Press stories in full click here for subscription details. Individual editions are now available online.
Island Life
All about Guernsey
Ambassador of the Year 2011
History & Heritage
Visitor Information
Guernsey's government
Campaigns
Voice For Victims
Voice for Victims is a campaign aimed at promoting the rights of those affected by child sexual abuse.
This is Guernsey
Guernsey Press
Useful Links
When will the States learn?
Breakdown in negociations has caused this dispute and no doubt there has been sufficient time to negociate a new deal for firefighters.
I feel for all the people missing flights, but in the end the buck has to stop somewhere. And that is normally at the highest level. In many major democracies this sort of farce which highlights political incompetency would lead to a political scalp.
I can probably guess that the States politcians will all back each other up to ensure that none of them is at fault. Lets blame the little man, lets blame the worker, lets blame the firemen. They aren’t allowed to comment about the dispute so the public won’t ever get the true story.
Let us hope the media does some digging and highlights where the issues really lie. Let us hope the media can do this fairly and without bias or emotion (I make reference to a recent article where a parent accuses the firefighters of ruining her childs chance at a ruby career – what a poor article that was)
This is not the first, nor the last time this sort of failure in communications is going to affect Guernsey.
Report abuse
Why don’t the Airport just fight fire with fire – fire them all and get in new people. If they do not want to work why do they stay and disrupt everyone else?
Report abuse
Whoevers to blame,its the same old story,the passengers who have paid good money for a service thats at risk from every troublemaker!
Report abuse
That’s rich coming from an airline which normally offers neither sympathy nor compensation when passengers miss connecting flights, need to stay overnight in a hotel etc due to delayed or cancelled flights. When that happens we’re always told to claim off our insurance. Why should the Guernsey tax payer bail out Flybe for this? Get them to claim on their insurance.
Report abuse
If Flybe’s plane breaks down and delays you for hours – what compensation do they give us?
If you miss your connection because you are delayed because of the usual mechanical failure what do you get?
Nothing is the answer.
I also note they are using the ticket machines to increase efficiency.
I trust we will see their saving passed on to the consumer! Will we fiddlesticks!
Report abuse
Flybe are chancing their arm a bit!
Report abuse
Why don’t they claim off their own insurance :) We have to when they disrupt us.
Report abuse
The island should pay as this is a disgraceful service they are offering the airlines, businesses and the general public. If they do not sort this out soon the damage to local businesses may not be reparable. Would any insurance company insure re firefighters…I certainly would not – they are a disgrace.
Report abuse
I’m not sure I feel quite as strongly as the,’The root of the prob’ – blame the firemen he cries! In fairness though to the, ‘The root of the prob’ what roles do these individuals perform on a daily basis anyway? – the ability to pump iron, (or sculpt ones guns as I believe the youth of today like to put it), and use the bird scarer seem to be the only skills required to carry out a shift!
Report abuse
make the fireman pay the compensation thay would think twice before causing so much disruption
Report abuse
Well i tell you what Malcolm Barnes: if you want to know what the airport firemen are there for you go and sit in one of their training aircraft when it is on fire……. then you will know what they are there for!
They are an insurance – and I for one, hope never to have to experience what they are really there for, but if they are needed i would want them to be well trained and well motivated.
Report abuse
Malcolm, You are obviously very misled on what the fireman have to do during a shift. And for the record the ops department carry out the bird scaring, so you obviously know nothing about what the job entails. Dont bother commenting if you dont know the facts. You may have seen in the news today what happens when a Dash 8 falls out the sky. They are there, and trained for what they may have to do.
Report abuse
Obviously some people would rather these men were pulling dead bodies from a crashed aircraft evey week. Perhaps then people would feel they were earning there money.
Report abuse
Merlin i agree with your comment about an insurance for the airpor.
But get your facts right when they light up that rig they dont go inside, in fact if the preverbiel
were to hit the fan it would be the town firefighters entering a burning plane to make any rescues while the airport firefighters stay outside!
Report abuse
The whole issue is down to the negotiating skills of the department acting on behalf of the States of Guernsey, or more to the point, the people employed to negotiate pay issues on behalf of the States. States of Guernesy negotiators are renowned for their inflexible stance and miserly offers. Some people do not understand that persons from the emegency services work at weekends, bank holidays, nightshifts etc, thus missing valuable time with their families.
Note: I have no family of freinds who are airport firemen.
Report abuse
In response to anon.
Don’t make statements about things you clearly know nothing about. If as you say the preverbial were to hit the fan it would be the Airport Firefighters entering the burning fuselage to rescue any surviving passengers. That is not to say the Town Fire Brigade wouldn’t provide some much appreciated assistance but they would generally let the Airport OIC call the shots, despite having the authority to take over control of the incident if they wanted to, as the Airport guys have the specialist knowledge to deal with such a disaster (despite what some people have bitterly stated about them not being real firemen, not knowing what to do etc.). I hope this little snippet of information has gone some way towards educating you on a very small section of major incident procedures and trust that next time you feel the desire to misinform everybody on the forum you find some way to quash your urge.
Report abuse
As it would appear it’s Flybe that mostly require the stated cover, shouldn’t they be paying for it ?!? Why should we tax taxpayers foot the bill ?!?
Report abuse