The Jersey Aircraft Registry: A Chronology

The Jersey Aircraft Registry: A Chronology

There is an interesting FOE request which gives “dates of meetings and approximate durations of meetings held by States officials either with or without the presence of the Assistant Minister Murray Norton with interested third parties to date since he took over looking at getting the Jersey Aircraft Registry working again."

I’ve linked these with other public domain information to create an interlinked chronology of events.

15 December 2016

2 States officers meeting with interested third parties

Notes Taken, all day Meetings

22-24 February 2017

Murray Norton present

2 States officers meeting with interested third parties

Notes Taken, all day Meetings

14 March 2017

Murray Norton press announcement: “I brought in a new team of officers to look at this come January of this year, and took responsibility for it in a political sense and said, ‘Let’s find new markets, let’s find a better way of marketing the JAR than we have done so far and a better way of operating it so that we can attract aircraft and play catch-up to the others.’ That’s exactly where we are now.”

Deputy Norton added that the team have been in discussions over the past 2.5 months with external stakeholders who he declined to name at present, which should allow for an updated business plan to be revealed by the end of May or June this year. (Source: Bailiwick Express)

22 March 2017, Scrutiny Panel

Murray Norton: “We are in very good discussions, very encouraging discussions, at the moment on various options. We are in the middle of those and I cannot, obviously, divulge those at the moment. They are business sensitive..... We are in discussions and I am very hopeful that I would be able to come back to another Quarterly Hearing here and be able to give you more positive news of the Aircraft Registry. I am not hopeful, I am more confident.”

“We are very encouraged by the information that we have been given and the directions that we are moving in at the moment and I am encouraged, hopeful, optimistic of where we may be in 2 or 3 months’ time when we will have more information”

“We have given ourselves a period until the 31st of July. It is on public record that I will give it until 31st July pursuing the opportunities that we have at the moment. After that period we will have to look and see, and review again.”

Simon Bree: “Why is your department continuing with the Aircraft Registry? Would you not hand it over to Ports of Jersey who I believe are looking after the Shipping Registry.”

7 July 2017

Murray Norton not present

1 States officers meeting with interested third parties

Notes not taken, 3 hour meeting

1 September 2017

Murray Norton not present

2 States officers meeting with interested third parties

Notes Taken, conference calls 45 minutes

21 September 2017

Murray Norton not present

2 States officers meeting with interested third parties

Notes Taken, conference calls 45 minutes

4 October 2017

Murray Norton not present

3 States officers meeting with interested third parties

Notes Taken, conference calls 45 minutes

11 October 2017

Murray Norton not present

2 States officers meeting with interested third parties

Notes Taken, conference calls 45 minutes

8^th November 2017

Economic Affairs Scrutiny Panel Minutes

The Panel welcomed the Assistant Minister for Economic Development, Tourism, Sport and Culture (Deputy M.J. Norton) and department officers to the meeting to deliver a private briefing on the latest situation with the registry. No details of the briefing are given in the minutes.

December 2017

New figures analysed by Business Eye CI reveal Jersey’s much-maligned aircraft registry is expected to bring in revenue of just £10.48 a day this year....It has so-far recouped less than 2% of its costs.

States Assembly, March 19 2018

Deputy M.J. Norton:

The Minister has written to Ports of Jersey outlining our wish for them to assume oversight of the operations of the registry. Similar to that, that they successfully have, with the ship’s registry... I hope this can be concluded during the remainder of March and April. This will allow the programme of legislation development to be agreed over the summer and the Jersey Aircraft Registry relaunched, we estimate, in the middle of 2018.

Deputy S.Y. Mézec:

The reason I have asked this question was simply after reading the transcript from the recent quarterly public hearing with the Scrutiny Panel about this, and what I wanted to try to find out is: what really is the detail behind this new scheme and how can we be assured that it will be successful where the current one has not been successful? What is the offering that it will be making that will make it more likely to succeed? Do we have any detail about this at the moment?

Deputy M.J. Norton:

The detail that we have is that we are relying on the expertise and the knowledge and the natural home for an aircraft registry, in my opinion, which of course is Ports of Jersey, as I have already outlined. All I can say is that we need to widen the scope of our services that the Jersey Aircraft Registry can offer the market. This is why further developments to our suite of legislation will be necessary. The business model will be approved by the Minister for Economic Development, Tourism, Sport and Culture and, of course, Ports of Jersey, who will be handling it.

Let us be very clear, civil servants are not particularly good at running an aircraft registry. We believe Ports of Jersey will be. They will be engaging the right experts to ensure that this Island benefits from an aircraft registry.

Press Release: 19 March 2018

Deputy Murray Norton, said “I firmly believe that the Registry can and should form part of the Ports’ business model and I’m confident that Ports of Jersey has the relevant and proven commercial expertise to make the Registry successful. We’ve reached this position following some determined work behind the scenes by myself and officers. They have worked incredibly hard to turn around what had become, undeniably, a failing project, into a solid plan for future success.” (States Website)

Group CEO for Ports of Jersey, Doug Bannister, commented “Ports of Jersey is willing to assist government in progressing this initiative and we look forward to working alongside the Minister and his department to ensure the future success of the Jersey Aircraft Registry.”

25 March 2018

"I have asked Ports of Jersey to take over the operation of the failing Jersey Aircraft Registry and would like to acknowledge the good work of Assistant Minister Deputy Murray Norton (who asked to be delegated this challenge)". (Lyndon Farnham)