Open Skies at last. unfettered competition!

Quite good news for Jersey.
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The Economic Development Committee, which has assumed the powers of the Jersey Transport Authority, has decided that the current policy of licensing routes between the UK, the Isle of Man, the other Channel Islands and Jersey should come to an end and market forces should be allowed to prevail.

The committee ultimately wants to repeal the Air Transport Permits (Jersey) Law 1998 that empowers the JTA to issue permits to airlines, but it intends to consult the industry beforehand. ‘The law was brought in to protect Jersey’s vital
air links when the rest of Europe was liberalising its skies,’ said committee president Deputy Gerald Voisin. ‘We now feel that it is an unnecessary barrier and should be removed. We also hope to bring in a Competition Law soon, and restricting competition on air routes does not sit comfortably with that piece of legislation.’

Asked if he feared that the Island could lose some year-round services without some form of protection, the Deputy said that the opposite was more likely.

‘This will allow airlines to respond more quickly to customer demand by removing an unnecessary piece of bureaucracy,’ he said. ‘It will also promote competition on routes and should lead to a better deal for passengers. And remember, the existing scheme does not stop airlines pulling off routes if they want to – British Airways had a licence to operate between Jersey and Heathrow but we were powerless to stop them ending the service.’

Deputy Voisin added that between now and any States debate over the repealing of the law, his committee would grant licences to applicants as a matter of course unless there was an exceptional reason not to do so.

The move to an ‘open skies’ policy has been met with guarded optimism by the Jersey Air Passengers Association.

‘It is a good move, but we shall only see a significant improvement in services when landing charges at the Airport come down,’ said chairman the Rev Anthony Swindell. ‘Remember, EasyJet was granted a licence to fly here a few years ago, but they chose not to because they thought that Airport charges were too high.

‘The Harbours and Airport Committee have said that the passenger fee will come down by a couple of pounds next year, but it needs to at least halve now. Jersey has a huge opportunity at the moment to benefit from the fall in demand for long-haul travel – we need to be lowering charges this year, not next year.’

On the face of it, the move to an ‘open skies’ policy will not have a huge impact on airlines wishing to fly to Jersey. Since January 1999, the JTA and EDC have only refused two out of 36 applications – both from Flybe (or its predecessors) and concerning the same route between Jersey and Southampton.

But, according to the EDC’s director of strategic development, Bev Anthony, the perception is more important that the reality.

‘Even though the vast majority of applications are successful, Jersey is regarded by airlines as a difficult place to get a licence,’ he said. ‘We have had instances of airlines deciding to start a service immediately, but we have had to tell them that they need to apply first. It can cause unnecessary delay and confusion.’
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Switzerland, Jersey and Guernsey are the only areas of the world to operate this system now and all have dwindling passenger numbers I am lead to believe, so it can only be good to have unfettered competition. I hope Guernsey could now adopt this system as it probably could solve a few problems.