GHA Air Links Survey

Last month we surveyed our members relating to Guernsey’s air links, with 47 respondents.

The results showed a unified response to several of the key issues facing the island’s tourist trade.

  • 95% of respondents are not satisfied with the current state of air links for Guernsey in terms of affordability
  • 60% are not satisfied with the current state of air links for Guernsey in terms of reliability
  • 81% are not satisfied with the current state of air links for Guernsey in terms of routes/destinations
  • 91% answered that compared to other destinations, airfares are too high
  • Of that 91%, 95% believe that fares are having a detrimental effect on their levels of business
  • 89% answered that having a longer runway would enhance their business
  • 67% went as far as saying they would consider expansion plans for their business if the States of Guernsey decided in favour of lengthening the runway

 

Hospitality Association President Alan Sillett commented “The results of the survey speak for themselves. It clearly highlights that our members believe there is a problem with the affordability of air fares, and that this is having a detrimental effect on their businesses.

“The survey also states that if a solution to improving air links via EMAS to enable a longer runway within the current airport boundary can be introduced, 89% of respondents believed it would enhance their business. And 67% said they would consider expansion plans should the runway be re-purposed to a length that industry-standard planes can fly to Guernsey with a full payload.”

 

A few important Facts to remember:

    1. There are fewer passengers using the airport than there were 25 years ago.
    2. There are 33% fewer flights available in 2023 than in 2019.
    3. IATA (International Air Transport Association) recently stated that ‘Global air travel is now at 93% of 2019 levels, and forecast to reach 115% of 2019 levels by 2027’. Yet in Guernsey, our direction on air travel is going in a different direction.
    4. Within the report that CfED included in their recent media release, Frontier Economics stated that with a longer runway… They estimated that, in an intermediate scenario, this could generate around 20,000 new annual visitors to Guernsey, a 7.1% increase on 2019 visitors.
    5. Guernsey’s runway can be re-purposed within the current airport boundary to a length of 1,600-1,650m by utilising new technology called EMAS (engineered material arresting system) therefore enabling industry-standard planes to fly to Guernsey with a full payload.
    6. The GHA board who initially gave the States the idea of a visitor levy, would like to ringfence the collection of the levy to the 100% payment of the installation of EMAS. This means no financial pain for Guernsey Taxpayers, and a payback from industry for the support shown during Covid, whilst stimulating growth and a fightback against “the black hole” in our finances.