Hold baggage delays "will not put Phase 5c on hold"

Thursday 10 September 2020

Guernsey Airport has said that current hold baggage arrangements will not have an impact on the implementation of Phase 5c, after the Chief Minister said it was a difficulty that had to be factored in.

Until the new system is in place, Ports officials have said they are required by their regulators to hand-search the hold luggage of some passengers, who will be randomly selected.

CCA Chairman Gavin St Pier said this presented difficulties for controlling the flow of people within the airport, which may impede upon Phase 5c’s implementation.

“All the planning so far has been managing people coming into the airport,” he said. 

“Now we need to understand the implications for any delays in getting people out, and in particular understanding whether that has a knock-on effect on schedules. We can’t have a load of flights arriving at the same time if flights are going to be delayed because of issues with hold baggage.”

Deputy St Pier said the situation needed to be "well managed" to ensure it wouldn’t impact the island’s lockdown strategy. 

Since then, however, an Airport spokesperson has said the work, which could last until the spring, will have “no material impact on the decision to enter, or the operation of Phase 5c.”

“A few flights are delayed for a number of operational reasons, largely weather related,” they said. “The Airport has been, and will continue to be, proactively working with all carriers to space out departing and arriving passenger flights so that there are not large numbers of people in the passenger terminal at any given time.”

Deputy St Pier said that “nothing has changed” with regards to Phase 5c, with hopes that it can be implemented in mid-October, but there is currently no planned start date.

Click HERE to read more about the details of the most recent media briefing.