Taxpayers have paid out £7.5m to airlines to get them to fly in and out of the island since the last election.
Treasury Minister Dr Alex Allinson revealed the figure, which is separate from the tendered patient transfers service, after a question from Chris Thomas (Douglas Central).
In the year 2022/23, airlines received £2,108,853.70 in subsidies, which rose to £4,107,330.24 the year after.
So far this year, the bill has been £1,325,361.16.
Dr Allinson said: “The sources of the subvention funding are the ‘Contingency Fund’ and the ‘Economic Strategy Fund’.”
He also outlined that the objectives of the airline subvention funding are to “secure connectivity to London for business and leisure travel; to secure the Northwest air routes for patient transfers; to improve resilience by ensuring there was more than one carrier on core routes and to introduce a level of consistency based on the social and economic needs of the Isle of Man and not solely route profitability”.
Post Covid
When the subsidies were first introduced, the aviation industry was finding its feet again as the world emerged from the pandemic.
Dr Allinson said: “At the time of commencing with the first subventions, there was reduced connectivity as the airline industry recovered from the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic, resulting in limited capacity; even when airlines started to scale up their services.
“The Department for Enterprise had identified the limited options for customers and hugely variable pricing arising from limited capacity.”
The Treasury Minister added that the key areas considered when identifying what the objectives of the subventions should be included that the public and industry called on the government to address issues of reliability.
There was also a need to provide greater choice and flexibility for islanders and visitors, it allowed some control over scheduling and also ensured that there would be a locally based regional carrier.
Dr Allinson said: “The subvention has ensured stability to all of these aspects.”
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