Guernsey Press

Aurigny says Covid-19 has had catastrophic impact on business as it delays enhanced service

AURIGNY has pushed back the introduction of its new schedule until 12 October.

Published
G-OATR arrives at Guernsey Airport. (28650430)

It announced its provisional winter schedule on 20 August, with flights planned to Gatwick, Southampton, Manchester, Birmingham, Exeter, Bristol, East Midlands and Alderney.

But now it says this wider range of services will be delayed as the inbound self-regulation requirements are still putting people off from travelling.

Mark Darby, chief executive said: 'The impact of Covid-19 on our business over the past six months

has been catastrophic. Passenger numbers are significantly down with 250,000 fewer passengers

being carried between the 1st of March and the 31st of August than in the same period as last year, excluding IOM.

'Since March we have had to be agile – making frequent changes to our plans in response to the latest

news and status of the self-isolation requirements – which has, for understandable reasons been a

continually moving target. Unfortunately, it’s just not commercially viable to run the more

comprehensive schedule that we had planned until demand increases or the self-isolation

requirement period is reduced, and both are inevitably interconnected.'

Un-furloughing staff in Gatwick to provide a skeletal service is just not financially sensible, the airline said.

Following public demand for flights to other destinations to support students going to the UK, Aurigny added two return flights to Manchester. All four sectors remain under half full, with the busiest flight carrying 31 passengers on a 72-seater ATR and the others carrying just 24, 18 and 16 customers.

'While these flights have gone ahead, it is not financially viable to continue to operate services with loads of 28% and lower, so continuing the Southampton service, which is also a necessity for our medical connectivity is the logical solution.'

It has changed the schedule so that there will be double daily services to Southampton on weekdays.

There will also be Saturday and Sunday services for the first time since early April – all with effect from 21st September.

The Alderney route will see it 'matching the services with demand'.

The airline has also announced a 'book with confidence' scheme.

Customers can cancel their bookings and receive a travel voucher for future use, regardless of their reason for cancellation. This will apply to all existing bookings and further booking made up to 31st March 2021 for any travel date in 2020 or 2021.