North-south flights costing taxpayers £156 per passenger
SUSTAINING the air service between south and north Wales cost taxpayers £156 per passenger last year, it has emerged.
The cost is £23 per passenger higher than the figure recently given by the Welsh Government to the committee which scrutinises government spending.
One AM said questions should be asked about the “excessive cost” of the service and the Welsh Government’s transparency on that cost.
The number of passenger journeys on the weekdays-only flights increased by 38% in 2017-18, the first full year after a new operator, Eastern Airways, took over. However, total subsidy for the flights exceeded £2m for the first time in 2017-18. The increase is attributed to the Welsh Government bringing in Eastern Airways at short notice in early 2017 after the previous operator lost its permit to fly. The Welsh Government is now procuring a longer-term operator for the flights between RAF Valley, near Holyhead, and Cardiff Airport.
Details of the subsidy emerged after the Assembly’s public accounts committee requested an update. The Welsh Government provided figures for the “total subsidy” and “subsidy per passenger” but omitted the funding it gives Anglesey Council to operate the civilian terminal at RAF Valley to enable the flights to operate.
The Echo’s sister paper, the Western Mail, has established that funding for the terminal was £309,999 in 2016-17 and £318,399 in 2017-18.
The Welsh Government’s letter to the committee says that total subsidy for the air service was £1.08m in 201617 and £1.84m in 2017-18.
With the terminal’s subsidy included, the total subsidy last year was £2.158m. The increase was partly offset by the additional passenger journeys, which totalled 13,845. This means the total subsidy per passenger in 2017-18 was not £133, as the letter to the committee states, but £156.
Mark Isherwood, Conservative AM for North Wales, said: “These excessive figures merit further investigation by the public accounts committee. There are also questions around the degree of transparency in how the Welsh Government reported these figures to the committee. We must also ask how many of the subsidised flights involved passengers working in the public sector who are themselves already having their tickets paid by the public purse.”
Mr Isherwood said the increased air subsidy contrasted with the situation for other transport. Cuts to bus services in north Wales were preventing people accessing jobs and forcing some to give up jobs or move away from their native communities.
A Welsh Government spokeswoman said: “The increased subsidy for the intra-Wales air service is directly attributable to the previous operator, Van Air, losing its permit to fly in UK airspace, and the subsequent collapse of its ticket agent, Citywing.
“The Welsh Government acted quickly to put a temporary contract in place with Eastern Airways to ensure service continuity for passengers. Since taking over the route in 2017, Eastern Airways has achieved significant growth on the route of around 40%, and has brought confidence and visibility to the service amongst new and existing passengers.
“With our partners at Transport for Wales, we have recently undertaken a public tender process to secure a longterm operator for the route and hope to be in a position to announce the successful bidder for the new contract shortly.”