‘A black swan event’ - Aurigny apologises for disruption
A ‘black swan event' was how Aurigny’s chief commercial officer described the disruption which hit the airline over the weekend, leading to long delays and the cancellation of some of its flights.
Sudeep Ghai reiterated the airline’s apology to all customers.
‘We recognise that for the last couple of days everybody has been impacted and on behalf of Aurigny I would offer an unqualified apology. This was an unfortunate coincidence of circumstances. It was very much a “black swan” event for the industry.’
As well as mechanical issues there was poor weather to contend with at the end of the week, he said, which caused low visibility in Guernsey and led to delays even before the weekend problems.
One of the airline’s Dornier aircraft and an ATR were out of service due to routine maintenance, but then two of its remaining ATRs were hit with technical issues.
While one had a control valve fault, the other suffered a problem with leading edge de-icing equipment. And while Aurigny used leased planes to fill in, Mr Ghai said that one of its providers had its own problems with crew illness.
‘Everything that could go wrong did go wrong,’ he said.
‘Our team did their level best to get people where they needed to go. We had people working all hours. We’ve done whatever was necessary to get our customers from A to B.’
With additional routes due to start in time for the summer the airline has already lined up leased planes to assist. In addition, it is planning to add two ATRs to its fleet to replace the Embraer jet, which Mr Ghai said will be leaving some time in April.
‘We’ll be opening up Paris and destinations in Europe and will be offering three flights weekly into Stansted and 13 into London City.’
Aurigny is in regular contact with its shareholder, the States' Trading Supervisory Board, he said.
‘We have a regular reporting process and they are apprised of the situation,’ said Mr Ghai.
In response to concerns raised by the Guernsey Hospitality Association over the resilience of the fleet going into summer, he said the airline felt confident.
‘I think we’ve built resilience into what we are planning going forward and I would say that the circumstances we have faced were an aberration.’
