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No airlines have applied for a licence to fly on Guernsey and Alderney's lifeline air routes - with the Transport Licensing Authority unable to do anything about the recent problems with Aurigny's services.
Giving an update to the States yesterday, the President of the TLA reiterated that its responsibilities are limited to "the determination of applications for air route licenses".
Deputy David De Lisle said that means that without any challenge to Aurigny's position as the sole carrier on the lifeline routes, the TLA is limited in what it can do to encourage improvements to current services.
Pictured: Deputy David De Lisle is President of the Transport Licensing Authority.
Guernsey has a 'quasi-open skies policy' approved by a previous States, whereby a Guernsey air transport licence is only required by airlines wishing to operate on the 'lifeline' routes that are between Guernsey and Alderney, Guernsey and Gatwick, and the Guernsey/Alderney/Southampton services.
Aurigny has the licence to operate all of the Bailiwick's lifeline routes but it has recently come in for sustained criticism because of technical and operational problems that have persisted throughout this year.
Deputy De Lisle gave his 'annual update' to the States on behalf of the TLA yesterday morning where he explained that yet again there have been no applications from any other airline to operate services on the Bailiwick's lifeline routes.
Without any challenges to Aurigny's sole right to fly on those routes, Deputy De Lisle said he and the other members of the TLA have looked at whether the States-owned airline is meeting the obligations of its licence.
Those enquiries confirmed that yes, Aurigny is meeting its obligations.
"Members will be aware that Aurigny has experienced operational difficulties this year," said Deputy De Lisle.
"As I have said, the responsibilities of the Authority are limited to matters relating to air transport licensing and therefore the extent to which it could engage with Aurigny is confined to the licences held by the airline for lifeline routes to the UK - London Gatwick and Southampton.
"The Authority held meetings to consider this issue, including a joint meeting with representatives of the STSB and Aurigny in order to determine whether the airline had complied with the conditions of the licences that it holds for those routes when services were affected.
"I can confirm that during the periods that were reviewed, Aurigny had complied with the licence conditions," he concluded.
The TLA also looked at Blue Islands services, as the airline codeshares with Aurigny on the Guernsey/Southampton route.
Deputy De Lisle confirmed that the TLA "is satisfied that it has also complied with the conditions of the licence that it holds for that route".
To protect the lifeline services, Deputy De Lisle said that both Aurigny and Blue Islands will now be subject to regular reporting arrangements to ensure they continue to meet their statutory obligations on these important routes.
"The Authority has asked both Aurigny and Blue Islands for additional information on the services that they provide on UK lifeline routes and it has also asked to set up a regular reporting arrangement with the airlines," he said.
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