Aurigny’s first April operating profit in a decade

The airline said that the first quarter of the year had been ‘challenging’, with the Covid Omicron variant having an impact on demand for flights, but trading conditions had since improved ‘markedly’.

Passenger bookings in April were 12% up on April 2019, demand for travel in May was in line with expectations, and June was on track to exceed target.

The company said that following its first April profit for more than a decade, it now expected it would achieve a marginal profit for the second quarter of the year.

Work the airline has done to keep costs down has meant it has increased average fares by less than inflation this year, it said.

Aurigny has standardised its ATR fleet to the more fuel-efficient 72-600 aircraft which, it said, has offered financial and environmental benefits – it used 25% less fuel in Q1 of 2022 compared to the same period in 2019.

The airline’s 2021 financial results should be published in the States Accounts, expected to be due out soon.

It has already said it lost some £13.5m. and expects to make a smaller loss this year, but the results were better than the expectations it set in its five-year financial plan.

That plan aims for break-even in its third year, followed by marginal profits.

‘We will only celebrate financial results once the business has achieved profitability,’ said chief executive officer Nico Bezuidenhout.