Blue Islands requests reconsideration of proposed route decision

Thursday 28 January 2010

Blue Islands has asked the Air Transport Licensing Panel to reconsider its proposed decision to reject the airline’s application to fly a twice daily morning and evening service between Guernsey and Bristol. The airline argued a case to be granted a licence in competition with Aurigny at a hearing in December.

Ian Le Moigne, Commercial Manager, said: ‘our application was based on innumerable requests from our customers who were keen to see a twice daily service morning and evening between Guernsey and one of the most popular cities in the south of England.

‘Bristol is an important business centre in the south and this fitted naturally with our philosophy to service the business and financial centres of Europe. We also believe that over a period of time, with the introduction of a second operator, we would be able to further stimulate the tourist market into the island through this gateway to the west and south west of England.’

Aurigny commissioned a leading UK aviation lawyer to argue against the application. The main thrust of his argument being that Blue Islands was unwilling to provide a detailed economic argument in favour of their application as well as the ability of the route to sustain competition between two operators.

At the hearing, Blue Islands offered to provide further detailed commercially sensitive information in respect of their application outside the public hearing, since such information would have been of benefit to competitors.

Derek Coates, Chairman Blue Islands said: ‘we firmly believe that Blue Islands can grow the route over a period of time. The primary beneficiaries would be the general public, businesses and tourist travellers, as well as the island’s economy as a whole if increased frequency and choice is available.

Blue Islands has now submitted a response to the Panel’s letter outlining its decision, within the 14 days offered for representations. This details the economic and commercial viability of the airline’s proposal together with full supporting figures and statistics supporting the reasons for re-consideration of the airline’s application to operate the Guernsey Bristol route on a twice daily basis.

‘We believe that Aurigny has done little to develop the Guernsey-Bristol market, choosing to merely operate a timetable based on aircraft availability rather than meeting the needs of the consumer,’ added Mr Coates.