Aurigny jet in surprise return for sales pitch
Aurigny’s jet made a surprise return to the island yesterday – but not to pick up any passengers.
The Embraer 195 jet, which left the island for what was believed to be the final time at the end of May, was instead visiting the island as part of a sales pitch to a potential buyer.
‘The aircraft has a demonstration flight scheduled today, as part of sale discussions,’ an Aurigny spokesman said.
‘No passenger services will be operated by the aircraft.’
Aurigny CEO Nico Bezuidenhout confirmed at the beginning of May that the company had reached a preliminary agreement to sell the plane, but gave no details on a potential buyer.
It is believed the aircraft has spent the intervening time in storage in Exeter.
Due to its age, the plane, which went into service in June 2014, has been limited by how many hours it could fly before a costly maintenance service was needed.
The jet’s original departure coincided with the airline running a reduced service in June, due to a shortage of aircraft.
Aurigny returned to a full service on Friday last week, restoring flights which had been cancelled for a few weeks on routes to Liverpool, East Midlands and Exeter back to the original schedule.
