Aurigny announces new Birmingham and Exeter routes
AURIGNY is set to take on the Birmingham and Exeter routes from next week.
The daily services were operated by Flybe before it collapsed earlier this week. Blue Islands has been helping passengers, which were stranded by the collapse, to get between Guernsey and the cities this week.
Aurigny has now announced it will take on the route permanently in a bid to protect the island's transport connections.
The first new service to Birmingham will operate from Wednesday 11 March and the new Exeter service from Thursday 12 March.
Chief executive Mark Darby said: 'We believe that maintaining Guernsey’s connectivity is key and with the collapse of Flybe it is an unmissable opportunity for Aurigny to provide a valuable customer service while at the same time increasing our operation and improving our financial position. Given that we are able to do this with no increase in fixed costs and with aircraft, crew and a user-friendly booking system immediately available to us we hope that this will alleviate some travel concerns that islanders may have at this time.'
It is planned that there will be one daily, late morning rotation to Birmingham, excluding Tuesday and Thursday. The service to Exeter will see a daily return service, except on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday.
The services could be expanded if the coronavirus situation changes and demand warrants it.
The news comes as Aurigny confirmed it was reducing its service to Gatwick due to falling demand caused by concerns over coronavirus.
Aurigny has had discussions with Exeter and Birmingham airports \ahead of the news services. Tickets will go on sale tomorrow and bookings can be made on the website or through the airline's normal sales channels.
Exeter Airport’s managing director Matt Roach said: 'The collapse of our long-term partner airline Flybe represented a desperately sad day for us all here at Exeter Airport. We are therefore delighted that Guernsey’s Aurigny airlines has quickly stepped in to operate flights from Exeter to Guernsey which will ensure continued service to this popular destination for our region and customers.'
