Aurigny ‘has met all targets for three years’, says CEO

His comments came as part of a BBC Guernsey radio interview broadcast yesterday lunchtime, where questions from the public were put to him via phone-in and social media.

Mr Bezuidenhout went on live to talk about the failures in the airline’s reliability and to address complaints about poor communication with disrupted passengers.

When asked whether there were restrictions being forced on him by States decisions, which were impacting Aurigny’s service and profitability, Mr Bezuidenhout said that the States had made the objectives it wished to pursue ‘fairly clear’, and he did not disagree with them.

These objectives included protecting the island’s lifeline flights with the mainland, financially breaking even and returning any surplus into lowering fares, and enhancing connectivity.

‘For three years we’ve met every single financial target, every operational target, we doubled connectivity, eliminated losses, and average fee increases were below inflation,’ he said.

‘This quarter our fares have increased by two-and-a-half per cent relative to a year ago, and inflation is running at 5% or 6%.

‘If you’re a medical passenger travelling to Southampton, you are paying 1.9% less than you paid last year, notwithstanding the impact of inflation and airport charge increases.’

He admitted that air fares were not as cheap as he would like, but said this was down to the size of the market Aurigny was dealing with.

‘The market is only the size that it is, and if we want to have an airline that is reliable, or a spare aircraft accessible at any given point in time, that costs money and that drives into the fares.’

He said that this year, 5% of fares to London airports had been sold at prices lower than £50, while 1.8% of fares were sold at fares above £200.

He added that 5,000 customers had paid less than £50 for tickets so far this year, and that this information was available on Aurigny’s website.

Regarding Aurigny’s recent wet-leasing of a 36-year-old, 34-seater Saab 340 aircraft to bolster its fleet while some of its 72-seater ATRs were grounded for repairs, Mr Bezuidenhout said the aircraft was ‘not an ideal’ backup, but was the only plane the company could find on the market.

He said the situation illustrated what was wrong with the company having its recently departed Embraer 195 jet.

‘The jet was a 122-seater aircraft, and 122 passengers don’t fit into a 72-seater ATR as a backup, so inherently the construct that we had was an unreliable construct.'

He said it was unlikely that any other airline in the world would have just one of one type of aircraft.

‘If you don’t have resilience, it costs money.’

He added that the sale of the jet was still not finalised, but that the proceeds of it would be used to pay back the loan from the States with which the plane was funded.