Board responds to air bias claims

Guernsey's States bought Aurigny earlier this year

Guernsey's Transport Board has hit back over claims a States-owned airline is receiving special treatment.

Countering accusations of bias towards Aurigny, the board's president, Deputy Mike Torode, says the airline is run completely separately with an independent chairman.

Two airlines, Flybe and Rockhopper, have both expressed concerns about Guernsey's Transport Board in granting licences and levying airport charges.

But Deputy Torode says because his board acts as a semi-judicial body, one stage removed from the States, its neutrality is guaranteed.

He says granting Rockhopper a licence to operate on Aurigny's most vulnerable route is a good example of fairness.

The Transport Board has yet to set a date for a hearing in Guernsey to consider Flybe's application to operate inter-island to Jersey, and from Guernsey to Manchester.