Wick PSO route to Aberdeen at risk of 'service failure' according to report before Caithness councillors
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Flights at Wick John O'Groats Airport are at risk of “service failure” as well as presenting a financial risk to the operator Eastern Airlines due to passenger numbers not meeting the expected rate.
The Caithness committee will receive the dire briefing next week when it meets, highlighting the issues faced by the airport, Highland Council, the operator and the public who may wish to use the airport.
Since the start of the public service obligation (PSO) in April last year, around half the numbers of passengers have used the flights which run twice daily, when not cancelled, to and from Aberdeen Airport.
Currently, the council commits £300,000 a year towards the PSO with around £155,000 drawn down for the first year either spent or provisionally allocated towards financial obligations, leaving an underspend of approximately £145,000.
A key component of that is the set schedule and fare structure that was agreed between the council and the operator to provide services that best fit the needs of the community.
The fare structures for Year 1 of the PSO provide for a value rate of £49.99-£69.99; a standard fare ranging between £89.99-£103.99 and finally a flexible rate of £123.99, but not enough passengers have turned up.
In the first month of operation between April and May 2022, projected passenger numbers were 1563 but just 520 took a flight. For the most recent period, December 2022, just 716 passengers boarded flights compared to the 1276 expected.
The discrepancy was at its most stark in October when 1792 passengers were projected to take a flight but just 910 did so – almost half fewer than anticipated by the council and operator.
Added to that there has been the expense of the increased cost of fuel as the PSO launched two months after Russia invaded Ukraine, throwing the energy markets into turmoil and putting costs through the roof.
By June the surcharge income, agreed by the council to support the PSO, had kicked in but at no point during the operation did fuel costs match the projections, adding huge pressures to the service.
David Swanson, project officer for the Wick PSO, said: “There have been challenges to date in achieving the volume of passenger numbers projected in the original contract submission. This is in part due to significantly reduced demand from the business community post-Covid.
“As can be seen from the figures, the trend has been generally upwards. This has been helped by a schedule change in August 2022 which introduced services at times more amenable to business use.
“A temporary schedule reduction was introduced over the Christmas-New Year period in 2022/early 2023, and this has also proven successful, with little reduction in passenger numbers and significantly reduced operating costs. It is anticipated that this schedule change may be extended later into January 2024.”
