Business travel may not be the same again after the Covid-19 crisis has ended, it has been claimed.

Terry Liddiard believes airlines are facing a ’nightmare’ time of it during the pandemic.

The former boss of Manx Airlines, who is aviation spokesman for local watchdog group Travel Watch, also believes the question of whether the government should own its airline should be raised.

Mr Liddiard told Business News that whenever we come out of the crisis ’the main thing will be to recover the economy and transport will be an essential part of it.’

Since Friday, March 27, the island’s borders have been closed and only a very limited group of people can travel on the few planes still allowed to fly.

Loganair is operating flights to Liverpool and Manchester and British Airways is responsible for flights to Heathrow.

Mr Liddiardpointed to the ’nightmare’ problems faced by airlines such as British Airways which is only operating about 10% of services and may have to lose about 12,000 staff.

He said Loganair were currently doing a ’sterling’ job.

But looking to the future and days when things might get back to some semblance of normality he said air passengers out of the island fall into three different categories.

The first, tourism, he believes would recover ’reasonab ly well’ but this is seasonable.

The second category is what is known as VFR - ’visiting friends and relatives’ and ’I think that market would recover pretty quickly. As soon as people are allowed to travel they will do that because they will have had months separated from friends and family’.

And the third section is business traffic.He said: ’It is crucial because it is year-round business.

’But I don’t believe that business travel can ever get back to how it was in the past.

’During the coronavirus crisis people have learned how to do business in different ways.

’Thanks to Zoom and various things like that I think people are going to ask whether it is really worth spending a few hundred quid to get down to London for a meeting, along with entertaining and dinner when you can do it for an hour on Zoom.

’So I think that will fundamentally change to some extent.’

Mr Liddiard believes in the future the crunch would come where at some point the government would have to intervene: ’I believe the government has got to step in to help. It would have to be tailored around the needs of the island’.

He said if someone wanted to run an airline they might operate flights to different places once a day to various places but that would no good to the island.

’You’ve got to have the double daily most days with morning and evening flights.’

There would have to be an agreement as to how much the government could financially help an airline setting up regular services when things get back to normal, he argued.

He pointed to the fact that Guernsey runs its own airline, Aurigny.

Asked by Business News if it was a viable proposition for the government to run its own airline Mr Liddiard said: ’Yes it is. but at a cost. But it could be done.’

He said in the past a number of MHKs and businesses had been in contact to ask how could they do it.

He said: ’The government could get an airline flying within a month and get it fully operating in six.

’But it would not make money, it’s really a question of how much it would lose.’

He pointed to the Aurigny which has been ’reasonably successful’ even though it had lost money.

He said the States of Guernsey felt that however much it was costing them it was still worth doing because they knew there were six flights a day to Gatwick and that was the ’mainstay of the island’s business. They think it is a price worth doing’.

A state-run airline would give the island ’control of its own destiny’.

He believes that for business in the UK capital London City airport is vital. But he says the most important routes are to the north west cities of Liverpool and Manchester.