The Committee for Economic Development has launched an Invitation To Tender (ITT) for two Public Service Obligation (PSO) contracts for the provision of scheduled air services to and from Alderney.
The ITT will cover two distinct PSOs: one for the Alderney-Guernsey route and one for the Alderney-Southampton route. Both PSOs will be for a several times daily, year round passenger and freight service.
In addition, the Guernsey PSO will also require the provision of charter flights for patients requiring emergency medical evacuation to Guernsey (medevac).
Public Service Obligations are used frequently in the European Union for air routes to peripheral regions and islands. They provide a chosen operator – appointed through a competitive tender process – with exclusive rights to operate a route and any necessary financial support, subject to an agreed service level and for a defined period of time.
While the Guernsey and Southampton routes are subject to separate PSOs, there are very likely to be operational or other efficiencies to be derived from a single operator serving both routes.
The ITT requires bidders to price a number of service level options for each route, in order to assist in the selection of the optimal solution.
Deputy Charles Parkinson, President of the Committee for Economic Development, said: “Following the strategic review of Aurigny last year, the Policy & Resources Committee recommended that the Committee for Economic Development should seek competitive tenders for the operation of air services on the Alderney-Guernsey and Alderney-Southampton routes. Subsequently, in July of this year, the States of Deliberation supported my Committee’s review of Guernsey’s Air Transport Licensing policy. This paved the way for Public Service Obligations to be developed on these two routes.
“I am pleased that we are now in a position to ask the market for their suggestions as to how we can best provide these services going forward. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our colleagues in Alderney for their regular input and feedback as we developed the detailed specification for each route over the past few weeks.”
Bidders will have eight weeks to respond; the closing date for submissions is Thursday 6 December 2018.
Supplier presentations will take place at the earliest opportunity in December 2018 / January 2019.
The Committee intends to then present its preferred service proposal and associated financial support request to the States of Deliberation, for approval in February 2019.
The PSO operator(s) will need to be able to start operations by an agreed date between Monday 1 April 2019 and Monday 30 September 2019.
