Over a period of 14 months, 49 employees left the business due to either retirement or people moving jobs as the aviation industry globally was hit hard by Covid-19 related travel restrictions.
Throughout the pandemic, Aurigny has also made efficiency savings and operated other services, such as Isle of Man and charter flights, where it could, beyond otherwise severely curtailed operations.
Consultations are now under way with a further group of staff, 4% of the workforce, after Aurigny retired the last of its ATR 72-500 series aircraft, G-LERE, from service – with the plane being returned later this year at the end of its lease.
This downsize in fleet is an operational efficiency, leaving Aurigny with only one ATR aircraft type (the three ATR 72-600s), with the restructuring meaning a small reduction in headcount at an operational level.
In its most recently published annual report, the taxpayer-owned airline said it employed 289 people – full-time equivalents – in Alderney, Guernsey, Gatwick and Southampton as at the end of December 2019.
Nico Bezuidenhout, Aurigny CEO, said: ‘Whilst any redundancies are regrettable our pursuit of efficiency within the business is an ongoing necessity and response to the tough conditions brought about by the pandemic.
‘We are grateful for the continued support of our shareholders, but in turn it is important that we lessen their financial burden where any operational efficiencies can be made.’
Kevin George, the airline’s chairman, said it had a responsibility to operate as efficiently as possible given the ‘incredible support’ shown to it by the States during the pandemic while meeting its social obligations in terms of operating lifeline links, with staff going above and beyond in that effort.
‘Through the pandemic, we’ve taken a number of measures to manage costs and there’ll be further actions to be taken. Unfortunately, some of them do involve people,’ said Mr George.
‘Now, that’s not to say when we’re back up to the full schedule, and things are occurring, some of that may come back.’
Efficiencies could be made without compromising safety of operations, he said.
Looking ahead, Mr George said it would take about six weeks for Aurigny to safely get back to a full schedule, once travel restrictions lifted, due to crew training. Initial operations would likely focus on Southampton and Gatwick, then better serving the north of the UK better.
Manchester has been a destination for Aurigny for some time, but new routes could be added in future. ‘In terms of next season, I think we’re talking more Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, possibly Newcastle. So serving those to the north and the jet may well be used to do that because it’s the right equipment to use for that longer flight.’
Referencing a travel survey with business groups, he continued: ‘In terms of where to go into Europe? Well, it depends what we get back. But if there’s a desire for people to travel in France, potentially into Spain that’s the sort of thing we would look at for sure.’
Asked if special flights to European destinations could be put on this year, Mr George said: ‘It would probably be difficult because this year what we are expecting to see is that as the borders open, that there will be a demand for more local travel.
‘So, I think it’s quite reasonable to expect that there’s some pent-up demand for people to travel to the UK from the Bailiwick and from the UK to the Bailiwick as well. Given the process we will have to go through in terms of getting the capacity back up to normal, it would be difficult.’
You need to be logged in to comment. If you had an account on our previous site, you can migrate your old account and comment profile to this site by visiting this page and entering the email address for your old account. We'll then send you an email with a link to follow to complete the process.