Aurigny Assures Passengers It Has Plans To Minimise Summer Disruption

Tuesday, 5 March 2024 10:16

Following a challenging week of fog and technical delays, Aurigny's chief commercial officer says two leased aircraft will join the fleet in April, to cover new destinations.

Aurigny has apologised to customers for the delays and cancellations in late February and early March, but did warn in its online letter that the service would be 'fragile' over the coming few weeks.

Its chief commercial officer, Sudeep Ghai, described what happened:

"In our industry, this is something of what we would call a 'Black Swan' event. Unfortunately, we’ve had three factors coincide here.

The weather conditions, where low visibility in particular impacted our flying here in Guernsey. An unexpected aircraft incident that took two of our aircraft out of service.

And, some challenges with contracted supply, where providers of additional lift, because of staff shortages, were unable to fulfill the expected flying programme."

The problems worry Alan Sillett, who heads up the Guernsey Hospitality Association. He fears the airline's new and revived connections this summer, to both the UK and Europe, could result in an overstretched fleet and more cancellations and delays:

"It seems to many of us that the airline is trying to do too much, with not enough, and trying to please everybody."

Mr Ghai says when the E195 jet is withdrawn in April, there are plans in place:

"It's going to be substituted by two leased ATR aircraft. And the winter scheduled maintenance events, which were done deliberately, with a view to having minimal disruption on the summer, will have completed.

And therefore the aircraft should be fully available. And hopefully, finally, the weather will be a little bit kinder to us."