I went to see the Guernsey Aviation Group this afternoon. There was lots of talk of EMAS and the inefficiency of Aurigny’s current fleet. There were grounded opinions and suggestions that I think that we should investigate, particularly if we can extend the runway to the tune of less than £30M with the idea that it’s an economic enabler. If Aurigny re-lease the Gatwick slots to EasyJet, Aurigny can service the slots again with some notice. British Airways are already interested in three return flights from Heathrow, which would supplement the Gatwick offering. I don’t think we need Blue Islands anymore, so Aurigny should take over the Southampton route and consolidate to its busiest routes – Manchester and Birmingham, plus a tri-island hop three times a day with the Otter plane (the Dornier replacement). If we really want Aurigny to keep servicing the Gatwick route, then it should lease a jet rather than wet-lease. That’s more permanent, less expensive and Aurigny wouldn’t be the ones maintaining/servicing it. Gavin says Aurigny is already commercialised but from what I’ve seen, it doesn’t operate like it is. That needs to be sorted.
I attended another BBC Hustings tonight. On the panel were Jez Mercer, Paul Montague, Chris Nicolle, Sofi Noakes, Victoria Oliver, Jayne Ozanne, Charles Parkinson, Rob Prow and Sally Rochester. If I’m honest, the performances were fine but I have seen/heard all of these candidates give better performances previously. It might have been the questions. Judge for yourself on BBC Sounds.
I then hurried off to the hustings Hayley Camp or Andy Sloan put together (both of them put one together and I keep forgetting which way round it is). Anyway, they were at either ends of the panel. Others were Sarah Hansmann-Rouxell, Rhona Humphreys, Paul Luxon, Munazza Malik, Tammy Menteshvili and Andrew Niles. Some of the answers were quite good and delivered confidently despite all questions being challenging. I learned to my detriment that not every hustings allows candidates to ask a question, even towards the end when I thought the questions had dried up (they hadn’t, thank goodness). The St. Martin’s parishioners were clear on that and I respect them for their strict stance. Thankfully I wasn’t thrown out.
Tomorrow, I’ll be attending the last of the BBC Hustings. Expected to appear are Tom Rylatt, Steph Shore, Andy Sloan, Gavin St. Pier, Jennifer Strachan, Nikki Symons, Lee Van Katwyk, Simon Vermeulen, Steven Wall and Steve Williams. Then I’m off to the Rocky on Friday with Andy Cameron et al, brandishing my new campaign T-shirt that I picked up yesterday!
Tom Moore for Deputy 