Aurigny to look at feasibility of Newquay flights
Saturday 16th July 2011, 2:29PM BST.
Karen White will miss the Plymouth service as she lives in the city. She was in Guernsey visiting a friend who has just moved to the island. (Pictures by Peter Frankland, 1159898)
Karen White will miss the Plymouth service as she lives in the city. She was in Guernsey visiting a friend who has just moved to the island. (Pictures by Peter Frankland, 1159898)
AURIGNY has said it might look at operating a service to Newquay to replace Air Southwest, which has announced it is to close.
Air Southwest, which hoped to run services until the end of December when loss-making Plymouth Airport closes, will instead end its Plymouth and Newquay services to the island from September.
Passengers who use them said they were disappointed by the news.
Air Southwest was taken over by Eastern Airways in September after suffering a £600,000 drop in profits.
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“The Newquay flights have been reviewed at length, but are not viable on their own without the association with Plymouth.” – Air Southwest.
As I recall, the States purchased Aurigny to ensure lifeline routes were kept open. I appreciate Newquay is convenient for some but it takes some serious stretching of the imagination to call it a lifeline routem especially as Guernsey already has links to the South West via Exeter, Bristol and (at a stretch) Southampton.
I don’t necessarily expect Aurigny to be a huge profit-making operation – small regional airlines rarely are these days. It is however a States owned operation and in my opinion should only take on non-lifeline routes that can turn a decent profit.
I trust they will look very carefully before committing themselves to this non-essential service.
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@Paul
The Auringy management team have a duty to pursue all possible profitable opportunities, be it lifeline services or otherwise. Hence, looking at the feasibility of a Newquay link is the right thing to do.
It must also be remembered that with different business models, one route that is not feasible to one carrier may work for another.
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Paul is right Aurigny can’t afford to run a none profit making route.
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Oh Aurigny…. please look into a Guernsey – London City link !! That is a link that is vital for the island !
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GCIStudent – You’re absolutely right and you’ll notice I pretty much said the same thing. No problem whatsoever with Aurigny looking into it – or taking it on if it can turn a profit. My concern is that Aurigny should take great care when considering minor routes that have been unprofitable for another airline – to the extent they are now being canned.
I appreciate other business models can work but my concern remains – after all Aurigny’s raison d’etre as a States owned airline is to keep lifeline routes open and in my view their entire business model should revolve around that.
If that means taking on other routes that can be profitable then absolutely, go for it. That doesn’t include taking on loss making routes that are non-essential though. We can’t afford that kind of luxury at the moment.
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It may be that Aurigny should briefly consider all potential routes but looking at Guernsey/Newquay need not take long. Hands up, who will be using it? Oh nobody, I see, next! Any fool could tell you this is not a sensible route, maybe enough customers for a once a week service for a few weeks in summer but that could never justify taking it on.
How is that other ‘essential to Guernsey’ route doing – Jersey/Stansted? Is that actually making money or are they kidding themselves and the people of Guernsey? And if they say it is making money, where the hell are they losing it? I’m in favour of Aurigny being States owned but I expect to see a profit not aimless egotrip empire building. The States needs to get a grip on Malcolm Hart and keep Aurigny focussed.
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Oh, and I think Alvin has a point – I would have thought a Guernsey/City route could prove very profitable. If businesses are willing to pay £2-300 for seats into the City, why are Aurigny wasting time looking at a ridiculous part time holiday route?
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Beanjar and Alvin
The costs of operating into London City are ridiculously expensive, both Flybe and VLM dropped thier Jersey-City service as it was impossible to make any money on it. My guess would be that Blue Islands are experiencing similar problems on their Jer-City Service. A guernsey link on its own would never work.
A quick look at the CAA airport stats shows Jersey-Stansted carried more passengers than the Guernsey route, and by some margin too. Although admittedly, you can’t determine at what yield.
‘Where are they losing it’, erm…maybe increased charges by gatwick, fuel prices, a market still recovering from economic downturn, and the fact that operating small regional airlines is incredibly difficult due to the high costs involved (in terms of having the same central costs but a smaller operation to support it)…hence why nearly every one has folded/merged in the UK in the last few years!
‘egotrip empir building’…any knowledge of Auringy’s history would show how far they have rationalised and consolidated their services recently. Beanjar- as ever, an informed post.
In my opinion, as one of the only regional communities to have an airline operating in the interests of the population, we’re extremely lucky. The £2 (or whatever the figure is) that Aurigny lost per pax last year is obviously minuscule in comparison to the wider and indirect economic benefits.
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gcistudent, since you seem to have the inside scoop on Aurigny’s finances perhaps you can tell us (and them) which routes are losing all the money? It stands to reason that some routes make money, others lose it. I have no problem with the States ownership of Aurigny, only that they tolerate (increasing?) losses and are losing sight of their objective. How does competing with countless other airlines offering Jersey/London services help Guernsey one bit, unless it is profit making? If your argument is that Aurigny is doing no worse than other regional airlines because the recession is at fault, obviously expansion will just produce greater losses. If Mr hart believes £2 extra per seat will put Aurigny in profit let him start charging it instead of his insidious and dishonest ‘card charges’. Guerns dislike Flybe so much they would probably still support Aurigny, particularly if it can survive without subsidy. If, like me, you want to see Aurigny survive it is better to be critical than take everything they say at face value until the day the States get sick of mounting losses and decides to axe it.
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They should improve the Dinard schedules and restart the Cherbourg route before flying to yet another UK destination.
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Missing the point entirely beanjar- the other airlines were mentioned to illustrate that if they had tried to and subsequently failed to succeed operating JER-LCY, then how could Aurigny hope to make a GCI-LCY work with lower loads. Quite a succinct point i thought…
Loosing sight of their objective? Comical. Clearly, the whole blue-islands saga focused objectives, underlining the importance of the lGW and ACI-SOU routes, while highlighting the need to strive to return to profitability or risk losing the support of the states
‘obviously expansion will just produce greater costs’- eh? From local media and media interviews from local deputies, it seems to stand that the UK services (be it from JER or GCI) make profits, and that the real issue lies in the inter-island services, mainly Jersey.
Simple economics Beanjar- you charge an extra £2, making your ticket price greater than your rivals, and hence you lose the custom.
Your willingness for Aurigny to survive…at least we agree on one thing then!
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Dear GCIStudent….
Yes, I appreciate that London City is an expensive airport for airlines to fly to, but I would imagine that passengers would be prepared to pay that extra cost to get into London itself than Gatwick or Stansted.
Not only do passengers save time, but they also save money on train or taxi fares, and London City offers far better onward flight connections to other west and north European destinations than either Gatwick or Stansted, thus increasing potential demand for the London City – Guernsey route, ( and for Guernsey tourism as a whole ).
As things are, I would imagine that Stansted is cheaper for airlines to operate to than Gatwick – however, the Gatwick – Guernsey route, for those who can shop around and book early enough, almost always has the much lower fares.
As an example, in Mid-November I can fly from Gatwick to Guernsey return for under 60 quid, whereas the cheapest Stansted – Guernsey return flights are 93 pounds !
I do not say that Aurigny must introduce the London City service, but if they “might” look into the Newquay service then why not also look at the London City service, even, if necessary, if the Stansted route has to be curtailed.
Whatever they do decide, there is one task that Aurigny needs to accomplish in order to not only survive but also to attract more passengers, ( and Guernsey tourism needs more passengers coming into the island )… it needs to team up with a larger offshore airline or alliance, such as British Airways, Air France/KLM or Lufthansa.
If Aurigny was partly owned by Lufthansa, and / or a member of their Star Alliance airline consortia, it could reduce costs at international airports such as London City and greatly increase passenger traffic as the Guernsey routes would be bookable through the websites of all the other 27 member airlines, ( Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss, Polish Airlines, etc etc ), as well as the Star Alliance website, in addition to the existing solitary website.
Passengers would benefit from “through-fares” making the island more attractive as a destination, as well as giving more choice and flexibility to islanders, and giving more security to passsengers in case of delays at the transit airport.
Of course, such a membership would come at an extreme cost, but it would be better for Guernsey as a whole if Aurigny were losing, say, half a million quid a year by carrying 600000 passengers a year than losing the same amount with only 400000 passengers a year.
And islanders would have those better outbound flight possibilities !
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GCI-LCY would primarily be a business route, it matters not that I would be too thrifty to use it for a weekend in London. I don’t know why JER-LCY didn’t work out, perhaps because Jersey just has so many other London routes. I would have thought a quick straw poll amongst Guernsey’s business travellers would be worthwhile – perhaps using Blue Island’s price strategy of ‘all business’ high fixed cost flexible tickets. Be that as it may, Guernsey-Newquay cannot succeed and Aurigny should not waste much time considering it.
Aurigny would do better to apply themselves to their practice of charging £8 when we have the audacity to buy 2 return tickets using the cheapest method possible. What does it actually cost – a few pennies? As for their “no charge for Electron Cards”, that is another lie. It called my one issued by Barclays (Spain) a Credit Card and wanted £16!! Even FlyBE and Easyjet have the decency to accept all Electron Cards for free when they say they will. I remain loyal to Aurigny but they are sorely testing my patience. As a States owned company their business practices should be beyond reproach and not beyond the pale.
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The question is whether Blue Islands are losing on the London City route. Are they ? They are still operating it and one can get LCY – Jersey return for 181 quid return… much more than the other airlines are getting for the other so called London Airport routes.
The thing that amazes me is that Flybe and Aurigny have to duplicate all their flighs between Gatwick and Guernsey. In trying to compete with eachother they both HAVE to fly several times or more a day on that route… hence, at times, the low fares. Surely there money is being lost.
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In answer to which routes are profitable individually, here’s a general idea… very approximate.
However, as Malcolm Hart says, Aurigny is tied together so it is hard to say which ones are are which aren’t.
Mostly Profitable (sometimes not during winter):
Alderney – Guernsey
Alderney – Southampton
Guernsey – Gatwick
Guernsey – Jersey
Guernsey – Manchester
Guernsey – Grenoble
Jersey – Stansted
Guernsey – Stansted
Borderline (+/-):
Guernsey – Dinard
Guernsey – East Midlands
Mostly Unprofitable:
Guernsey – Bristol
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Ed, thanks for trying to shed light on the profitability of individual routes. But the figures don’t really stack up do they? If eight are profitable over the year, two are around breakeven and only one is loss-making then the Guernsey – Bristol route must be losing an enormous amount to drag the whole company into the red. If that were the case surely Aurigny would drop the route in the blink of an eye?
In my view the States should insist on the company making a profit, even if that means consolidating routes and services, before they allow any expansion. Adding non-core routes should be especially discouraged. Empire building in business is a facet of human nature. I have worked in companies where sideshows are pursued as ‘synergy’, management then tends to massage the figures to validate their decisions. It is easy to do in any largish company but ultimately, unhelpful. Eventually most companies return to profit only by retrenching to their essential core business. Public ownership of many businesses generally proves disasterous, Aurigny could be the exception but only if the States controls it very well indeed. Who knows, if they could get it profitable maybe the States could fill a chunk of the black hole by partial privatisation of Aurigny?
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Thank you Ed…. would be interesting to see how Blue Islands routes fare in comparison.
I wonder how a Guernsey – London City route would throw a spanner into the works.
It would obviously affect business on the Gatwick and Stansted routes.
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Beanjar, that’s why I said ‘individually’ – ie. fuel costs, employment of staff on desks and cabin/air crew against ticket money. When you take into account non-associated costs that upsets the balance.
Aurigny is not empire building. It is a community service, owned by government to serve the people of each and every Channel Island.
When T&R tried to sell Aurigny, they had forgotten why they had bought it in 2003. The situation has not changed. Routes are still under threat… routes which support the Channel Islands and their respective economies.
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St Marcouf – I too am frustrated by the inconvenient Dinard schedules and the overall lack of decent air links with France, but as I understand it, the times that Aurigny can fly to and from Dinard are dictated by the times that Dinard Airport will open for them (which these days are in turn dictated by Ryanair who fly there from Stanstead), so Aurigny are not in a position to be able to offer any improvement to the timetables.
Having said that, it would be nice to be able to fly from Guernsey to other regional French airports such as Rennes. I am fed up with all our air links being so UK focused all the time whilst direct links to the continent are, on the whole, extremely poor.
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Sorry Ed, I didn’t understand your meaning. If what you are saying is that eight routes could make a Gross Profit if you don’t take all the overheads into account, thats a very big ‘IF’. I am more concerned about Aurigny running a few key routes profitably than maintaining a loss making larger network until the States tires of losses and pulls the plug. I don’t consider competing on Jersey-London routes or adding others to small regional airports where there is already a viable alternative to be a vital community service.
Surely there would have been no desire to sell Aurigny outright recently if it was making a profit. If the company was profitable I would even consider forking out some of my hard-earned to buy a little piece of it.
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Being States owned, and if I was still living on the island, I would have been perfectly satisfied if Aurigny were to break-even – bearing in mind the local employment the airline creates, the services it provides to the local community and the ancillary revenue it generates to the local economy, partially in the form of landing fees which contribute to the viability of the airport.
Of course, it is even better if the airline can turn a profit.
It is interesting to see, from other discussions at other times on This is Guernsey, how some people feel strongly that the airline should be privatised and the States should not be involved in owning an airline. Yet the States own the airport and no-one feels that that is not right. If one privatised the airline then why not also the airport. Interesting thought.
As I mentioned earlier, Aurigny needs to join forces with one of the big boys, preferably Lufthansa which would give it membership in the Star Alliance network.
Another idea would be to change the name of the company. It does not need to be called Aurigny anymore. It belongs to Guernsey so why not use the name of the airline and all the marketing that is involved to promote the airline to also promote the name of the destination… Guernsey
Guernsey Island Air
Guernsey Aurigny
Guersney Alderney Island Airlines
Guernsey Green Airlines
Golden Guernsey
…. anything… as long as the name Guernsey features boldly on the sides of the aircraft, in the logo and on all marketing material of the airline.
That way, if the airline does happen to lose money, it can be considered to be contributing to the marketing of the island as a whole.
Ideas…. ideas… ideas…. Malcolm Hart – I hope you are reading this.
P S Beanjar : if you do manage to not just get a stake in Aurigny, but controling interest – please look into the London City route ! :-)
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Sorry, my ears pricked up when I heard the word ‘consolidate’. Very dangerous when you hear it in conjunction with ‘Aurigny’.
Jersey – Stansted is not direct competition, and is highly profitable. It is a route which many from Jersey find very useful, and one which is popular with toursits. If it helps the Aurigny purse, so be it.
In terms of ‘new’ routes, putting back Guernsey – Cherbourg or Guernsey – Granville would be good, as would a direct Rennes or Paris route. We live in hope.
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I think Ed has the same point as myself, that the ‘central costs’/'non associated’ costs make route profitability harder to work out that a simple assertion than route x delivers actual y profit to the company.
Revenue from individual routes has to be spread to cover costs such as the salaries of the senior management team, reservations & customer relations staff etc (there must be loads of similar central costs).
So routes may be individually profitable (i.e the company derives financial benefit from operating them) but not to the extent that the overall firm turns a profit.
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GCIstudent, my sentiments exactly. So it is the bureaucracy and the management costs which hold up the airline… however, those costs are in many cases jutified.
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Alvin
Auringy is name that many islanders feel strongly connected to; the media coverage last July/August showed that, even if the takeover was successful, the brand should not be lost. Furthermore, in carrying 430000(ish) passengers every year, and being around since 1968, it is a widely known brand.
Admittedly, I understand your point in reference to attracting new passengers, but type in ‘guernsey air’/'guernsey airlines’ into google and Auringy is the first webpage shown.
As for the aircraft livery, bright yellow, a big puffin on the back and the words ‘Channel Islands’ down the side… i’m sure that it a) attract the attention of individuals and b) informs them of the airline’s destinations.
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I wonder why Plymouth Airport ( more central to the southwest) is beeing closed and not Newquay?
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Lets get the States of Jersey to buy into Aurigny.
btw…Jersey Airlines – Jersey European – British European – Flybe.
As Jersey now have no island based principle provider ask if they wish to have a share in the services.
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A.J., it is because a housing development company owns Plymouth Airport and surprise surprise, they have chosen to close and redevelop it. Newquay is owned by the MoD.
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GCI student…
I appreciate that Channel Islanders are familiar with the brand, as I am aware of the history of the company, remembering clearly it’s launch and the reasons for it’s being.
And I agree that if you google Guernsey airlines, Aurigny pops up tops, and yes the Aurigny ATR-72s look very pretty and smart.
But before people google Guernsey, they have to think of Guernsey. For those who do not know Guernsey, or who are not thinking of Guernsey, the name Aurigny, and the current logo, colours and the aircraft themselves, ( no disrespect to the cute little puffin ), does not do anything to spread the name Guernsey. The word Guernsey is not even mentioned on the aircraft !
Better would be to see the ATRs painted in a mostly white colour scheme, with some green and blue, and a touch of yellow, ( colours that enhance a holiday atmosphere – one could even paint the rear half of each ATR with a different coastal scene ), and with the words “Guernsey” emblazoned boldly across the upper part of the fuselage, with the words “Europe’s tax-free holiday island” ( or some other catchy slogan ), underneath.
I even think that now that my original list of names could be bettered by calling the airline simply….. Guernsey. Every time one would google “Guernsey” details of the island and the airline would pop up. Double exposure.
Just like Switzerland’s national airline is called “Swiss”. And remember that Jersey Airlines contributed greatly to the marketing of Jersey in the late 50s and early 60s, ( as did maybe Guernsey Airlines for Guernsey, albeit on a much smaller scale, 20 years later ).
Then imagine how the aircraft themselves would look at London’s airports, Manchester or elsewhere. People who do not know of Guernsey may see them and then discover the Island of Guernsey.
I know many islanders would be sad to see the demise of the name Aurigny… but the name Guernsey would do so much more.
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I don’t know why they haven’t tried GSY to Oxford yet like JSY have done. It’s only 60 mins to London
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Oxford Jersey services are just a summer Saturday charter series.
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I don’t believe that Jersey Airlines was the forerunner of JEA.
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rocquaine is right, JA was unrelated to JEA (this came out of Spacegrand at Blackpool and Air Intra in Jersey.
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