Ex-Condor CEO criticises ferry tender timings

Paul Luxon ran Condor from 2016 to 2021

A former Condor CEO has expressed his frustration with the timing of the process to find an operator for Channel Island sea links for the next 15 years.

Paul Luxon told the Your Voice, Your Vote podcast he believed the tender process should have started near the beginning of this political term. He also expressed a frustration that so far the islands had failed to come to a joint decision on the future of ferry services.

Guernsey's government has chosen Brittany Ferries as its preferred bidder to run its sea links, while Jersey has opened a new process to find an operator.

The BBC has contacted Brittany Ferries and the Government of Jersey for a response.

Earlier this year, the governments of the two biggest Channel Islands announced they were working together to find a ferry operator to run sea links for the next 15 years.

Mr Luxon was in charge of Condor Ferries, which is now majority-owned by Brittany Ferries, between 2016 and 2021.

Before then, he served as minister for the Health and Social Services Department and in the Public Services Department.

President of Guernsey's Committee for Economic Development Neil Inder, who has been overseeing the process, had said he expected the contract with Brittany Ferries to be signed on Tuesday 26 November, but that had not yet happened.

He added that the company fulfilled all the criteria for the tender process, including around financial guarantees and suitability.

In an update to politicians earlier this month, Inder said there would be no subsidy to Brittany Ferries from Guernsey's States.

Mr Luxon told the podcast that the current agreement with Condor Ferries had a three-year run-off period, and he believed the start of that period would have been the right time to start the process to find a new operator.

"Four years have been wasted in coming to a conclusion, by having three years as a run-off that would have given any new operator the time to build some new ships.

"They cost €80m to €90m, probably a bit more now, as I'm a bit out of tune.

At the start of the process to find an operator to run the sea links, the offer from the States of Guernsey and Government of Jersey was for a 15-year contract with a possible 10-year extension.

Speaking to the Your Voice, Your Vote podcast Mr Luxon said he hoped the new contract came with financial guaruntees

The former CEO stressed the need for financial guarantees when it came to whoever ran the new contract.

He said: "Whatever this island does, there has to be a financial sustainability of whoever is the operator, who can actually write a cheque or take on a commitment for a charter, of two vessels, so we are looking at £250m.

"Whoever it is has got to have an access to funding to renew the fleet, all of which are in the final quarter of their life. It's an ageing fleet."

Jersey's Minister for Sustainable Economic Development Kirsten Morel said he had "concerns" about Brittany Ferries' "financial situation".

In response, Brittany Ferries chairman Jean-Marc Roué wrote to Jersey's Chief Minister Deputy Lyndon Farnham to respond to "damaging comments" he thought had been made by the States of Jersey and in media reports.

"The company I chair exists because its only guide is customer satisfaction," he wrote.

"The financial benefits of our activities are totally reinvested in the company."