Alderney air links resume after two-day issue
Alderney air links were re-established yesterday afternoon, after being cut off for more than two days due to technical problems with the only available aircraft.
Now an Alderney politician is asking questions about the resilience of the route.
Aurigny has two Dorniers which operate Alderney routes, but G-OAUR is undergoing maintenance. This has left six-year-old G-ETAC as the only aircraft.
After it suffered problems on Tuesday morning, it left Alderney cut off by air for more than two days. The plane finally departed Southampton yesterday afternoon to carry out two rotations in the evening.
Problems first arose after the plane completed a scheduled flight from Alderney to Southampton on Tuesday morning.
On Tuesday afternoon a flight from Guernsey to Exeter was diverted to Southampton to drop off an engineer to check over the plane.
Three out of four Guernsey-Alderney rotations were swiftly cancelled on Wednesday, but the airline was clearly hopeful that the plane would be fixed in time for at least one rotation.
A 27-minute test flight was conducted just after 4pm, but the 1.10pm Guernsey-Alderney departure was then cancelled just after 6pm.
Both Alderney morning rotations were cancelled early yesterday, as G-ETAC conducted another test flight just after 9am and a longer test just over an hour later.
Shortly afterwards the 5.30pm to Alderney was cancelled, leaving just the 1.10pm.
But that cancellation was reversed in the afternoon, after Aurigny confirmed the aircraft was fixed. It took off from Southampton and flew to Alderney just after 2pm.
An Aurigny spokeswoman said it had been working with local ferry operators to provide alternative travel arrangements for customers.
‘Aurigny engineers were quickly deployed to work on the aircraft and the airline’s crew has since completed the necessary test flight to return it safely back into service,’ the airline said yesterday afternoon.
Alderney States member Alex Snowdon said the cancellations were severely impacting the island, not just for tourism and business travel, but also people going for medical appointments.
He said this was not a one-off.
‘It feels like this is becoming normal and that is concerning,’ he said.
‘It’s not acceptable to be cut off. It impacts everything. The reputational damage it is causing is devastating.’
He highlighted that Public Service Obligation, which stipulates the two-aircraft set-up, was up for discussion at the end of this year, and he felt that the current model needed to be re-examined as it was too vulnerable.
There have been alternative options for travellers, with Alderney Ferry Services operating its schedule. It completed an Alderney-Guernsey rotation yesterday afternoon.
The Causeway Explorer can carry up to 12 passengers. Aurigny’s Dorniers can carry up to 19.
