‘No need for competition on Bristol’
Friday 20th March 2009, 2:00PM GMT.
AURIGNY does not believe there is need for competition on the Bristol route.
It has lodged an objection with the Commerce and Employment Department to Blue Islands’ bid to fly there.
‘We believe it is far better to have a single licensed carrier delivering a regulated, dependable, profitable and affordable year-round service on all routes rather than a number of different airlines competing for a finite income stream,’ said managing director Malcolm Hart.
‘The Bristol route is a limited market, but nonetheless one which we have built up over the years.
‘The situation in the world economy and in the airline industry means that carriers have to work very hard to achieve profitability and unnecessary competition just increases the financial pressure.’
Aurigny also believes that its type of aircraft is better suited for the south-west city route.
‘Our ATR is far better suited for this route and type of operation than the aircraft Blue Islands is proposing to use,’ he said.
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What nonsense. Aurigny operates in a market. If their service is the best then the addition of Blue Islands will have no effect.
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I live in Bristol,my mum lives in Guernsey,lets hope Blue islands are succesfull,will bring prices down,then she can come over more often to see her Grand children!!
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Does he fear a bit of competition by any chance?
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MT
Of course it will have an effect ! If there isn’t enough passenger demand to fill the capacity of two airlines on a given route, then both will fly half-empty and they will both lose money, and then one or both will pull out of the route as its not viable for them to operate and make a profit. The passengers gain in the short-term from the competition as prices get driven down, but nobody wins in the long-term when no airline is flying that route any more.
We have to face the reality that we are a small island and that competition on air and sea routes can backfire on us. Far better to give airlines monopolies on specific routes, but ONLY if they commit to operate within clear contractual parameters which do not permit them to abuse their monopoly and fleece passengers in both directions, Flybe previously having a monopoly on the Southampton route having been a prime example.
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There is no need for Blue Islands to operate a service to Bristol. Aurigny flights to Bristol are hardly ever full. Instead of playing silly game why dont these airlines apply different routes to give us islanders more choice where we fly to.
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An old fashioned economic view was that if competition resulted in lower prices, demand would increase.
Bristol is a wide catchment area taking business from Wales, the west of England etc. If Continental can operate a daily service to the US (at least they did!!) then given the current credit crunch economy the possibility of more customers for Guernsey must be a plus for the Guernsey economy.
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