Nice to see you….to see you Nice!

Today Flybe announced that they would start operating weekly flights between Jersey and Nice on the French Riviera from 24th May. Great news for Jersey residents looking for a week in Provence or hoping to break the bank of Monte Carlo, but is this of benefit to Jersey’s visitor economy?

Deputy Alan Maclean welcomed the announcement today, suggesting that “This new route opens up a number of opportunities for inbound tourism…” Not sure that many Provençales will be jumping off their sun beds on the Med. coast to spend a week in the relatively chilly Gulf of St Malo, but we'll see.

Anyway – it gives me another option for my summer holiday this year. Return fares seem to start at around £100.00 – not bad for a direct route to the sun.

Flybe takes a pop at Economic Development

An 8 page ‘Flybe - aren’t we wonderful’ supplement fell out of the Jersey Evening Post last night. Basically it’s an advertorial (I hate that word) supplement designed to inform us about all the new routes and destinations Flybe are serving and encourage us to fly with them more frequently.

But on the front page of the supplement, Flybe’s Chief Commercial Officer, Mike Rutter could not resist taking a pop at Jersey’s Economic Development Department's policy of handing out incentives to airlines to come and fly here. Their argument is that public money is being handed out in increasingly large amounts to airlines with no accountability and no long term commitment to the island.

Of course, the recent decision by Thomsonfly to stop flying to Jersey supports their argument and to be fair, they have always been consistent about it. Thomsonfly started flights to Jersey 4 years ago – presumably attracted partly by incentives for new route development. Nobody could predict that the airline’s parent company – TUI - would acquire other airlines and rationalise their fleet to only operate aircraft that cannot land in Jersey (the reason given for their withdrawal).

Of course, there is still the Heathrow subsidy that Flybe can point to. We may never know how much has been forked out by government to secure the route, but let’s hope that BMI show greater commitment than Thomsonfly have been able to. They are facing huge increases in landing fees at Heathrow from April next year of RPI + 7.5% which will put even more pressure on the viability of the route.

In the meantime, Flybe keep on flying and the tourism industry needs to recognise their commitment to Jersey. Let’s just hope they don’t get taken over by some larger airline who would rather use their UK airport slots for more profitable routes!

British Airways - it's a wipe out

Bad news arrived last week for surfers across the world, as the UK's national flag carrier British Airways issued a world-wide blanket ban on the carriage of surf boards. The ban, which is effective from 6th November will have a big impact on Jersey's surfing community and not help the island's tourism industry in the cause to attract more European and World surfing events to Jersey.

Not surprisingly surfing associations across the world are dismayed at the decision. The British Surfing Association with over 10,000 members has launched a petition to attempt to get the decision overturned, so far over 2500 have done so. Click here to view and sign the petition.

What can Jersey's tourism industry do about it? Well, hopefully the Economic Development Minister, Philip Ozouf along with Julian Green at Jersey Airport have already contacted British Airways to present our case. At the very least we should be trying to get an exemption on the Gatwick - Jersey route so that surfers can then connect to and from airlines that are still surfer-friendly.

If the ban is not overturned, then surfers will need to look elsewhere. Flybe charge £20.00, whilst bmi do not charge - but both airlines only take the boards subject to space allowing, so no guarantee you'll arrive with your surfboard anyway!

Latest score: Jersey Airport 2 : Jersey Harbour 0

More good news from Jersey Airport this week – another new route launches this Saturday and there’s increased capacity on another from next year. Meanwhile the July passenger figures show that arrivals from St Malo hardly grew at all – despite the arrival of HD Ferries this year.

This Saturday, Manx2 – a relatively new start up airline with ex-Rockhopper/Blue Islands chairman, Noel Hayes, at the helm – starts flights to that well-known international airport….er, Gloucester! Initially it will be weekends only, but at the end of October it will fly Friday and Sunday evenings – thereby creating a whole new short-break opportunity to and from the Cotswolds. In order to be sure that everyone knows where the airport is, they have rather grandly re-branded themselves Gloucester (M5) – and to be fair, it is well placed for getting to lots of other places. The 19 seat aircraft will also fly on from Gloucester to the Isle of Man, thereby once again providing a link between the two finance centres.

At the same time, Flybe have announced that from March next year there will be four flights a week to/from Newcastle. The growth in routes is very encouraging and apparently there are more announcements to come over the next few weeks.

While Julian Green and his team continue to achieve good things at the airport, down at the docks, it’s a different story. July’s arrival figures are out and amongst all the positive news, it was surprising to see that arrivals from St Malo had grown by less than 1000 passengers.

Remember that with HD Ferries, capacity on the route dramatically increased. Now I know that HD have had all sorts of problems and some sailings would have been cancelled due to poor weather, but even with a few days excluded the route has hardly grown at all and the market has been split between two operators. It will be interesting to see if August shows improvement – especially as the third operator, Corsaire, started last month.

Heathrow subsidy remains a secret. So who's next for a hand-out?

Whilst the great and the good of Jersey's tourism industry enjoy a trip round the Bay (of Biscay) aboard BMI's equivalent of the Saucy Sue, Senator Ozouf has confirmed that the subsidy provided by tax-payers to secure BMI on the Heathrow route will remain a state secret.

No surprise there then! The fact that it is being kept a secret, leads one to conclude that the amount involved is so big, that if it were revealed it would cause huge repercussions. So we wait to see if Flybe's challenge to the competition authorities both here and in the UK has any effect. Meanwhile, now that the skies have been opened from Heathrow to the US, I wonder how long BMI will want to keep flying to Jersey when they could use their slots for far more profitable routes across The Pond.

So who's next for a state handout? I expect an announcement within the next couple of weeks regarding the launch of new routes to the Continent. I would not be surprised if these are to Paris & Zurich - as these were the routes that were the last to disappear a few years ago and provide the only real chance of achieving a decent commercial result. And who will operate these routes? My guess is that the only operator who could possibly be persuaded to give it a go is a local airline - but we shall see.

It will be great to have the routes opened up. But I wonder how much they will receive from the States incentive pot? Unfortunately, we'll never know.

Just how much is that BMI Heathrow subsidy?

It's great to have Ian Taylor back! And he's certainly fighting fit and keen to get to the bottom of this Heathrow subsidy. As reported in today's Jersey Evening Post, Flybe have asked the OFT in the UK to investigate the subsidy provided by the States to BMI for the new Heathrow route. They have also complained to the Jersey Competition Authority that the deal should have been referred to them for approval.

Not content with that, Flybe have also made submissions to Economic Development, objecting to the issuing of a permit to fly the route. So where does that leave us?

To be honest it is unlikely that the launch of the new route will be affected - which will come as a relief to the thousands who have already booked to travel to Heathrow (including me!). However, it seems to me that the real problem here is Economic Development's refusal to reveal the subsidy. The secrecy of the deal suggests it's a pretty largish sum of tax-payer's money. Ian Taylor wants the figure to be revealed and is quoted as saying ' If it was £3 million a year - that's £9 million over 3 years.' Clearly you're good at maths, Ian!

Deputy Alan Maclean refuses to divulge the amount on the grounds of commercial confidentiality - but if it's public money and the figure is in that ballpark, surely the amount should be revealed?

Everyone in our industry (except Flybe and the other airlines) is delighted to have the Heathrow route back - not least the Finance industry. Perhaps there lies the key to the whole thing. The Golden Child of Jersey's economy has forced the hand of the government to make it easier for their clients to come and check out the value of their funds.

I'm willing to bet that it won't be long before the true level of subsidy is revealed. Keep watching this space!

bmibaby launch new Birmngham route & increase Cardiff schedule

More good news for air travellers to and from Jersey. Bmibaby have announced a new route from Birmingham with fares starting from £19.99 incl taxes. The service starts on 24th May and will operate 4 times a week (Sat., Sun., Tues. & Thurs).

At the same time Bmibaby have announced an increase in the Cardiff schedule from once a week to 3 times a week, again with fares starting from £19.99 each way incl. taxes.

This is more good news for the tourism industry and another feather in the cap of Julian Green and his team at the airport. Mind you - not too sure how Flybe will react to having a competitor on the Birmingham route. Along with Thomsonfly out of Coventry this will mean a significant increase in capacity out of the Midlands.

You can read more about the announcement by clicking here .