Alderney representative says Aurigny’s two-plane model is ‘too fragile’
The States and Aurigny are looking at how it can enhance the resilience of air links with Alderney following the technical problems last week which left the island cut off by air for two days.
Under the public service obligation agreed between both islands, Aurigny has two Dornier aircraft to service Alderney routes. Typically one acts as a back-up in case of technical problems. But when one plane is out of action or out of the island for long-term maintenance, as was the case last week, then there is no back-up.
Last week both aircraft were unavailable for more than two days. After repairs were carried out on the aircraft in service, test flights were then held up by bad weather. Aurigny transferred some passengers from Alderney to Guernsey by boat.
Deputy Peter Roffey, who has political responsibility for Aurigny and providing Alderney's airfield, defended the resilience available. He said that a third plane could not be justified on grounds of cost.
He said that under the PSO, it was ‘always known’ that there would be a risk of only being served by one aircraft at times.
Alderney representative Alex Snowdon complained that the two-plane model was ‘too fragile’ for Alderney’s links.
‘This is a broken service and likely to happen more and more, therefore there needs to be another solution potentially looked at in the near future to avoid this,’ he said.
Deputy Roffey said he was encouraging Aurigny to use ‘lateral thinking’ to improve resilience for Alderney within the PSO sum available.
‘It’s far too early to say anything about that but I know they are looking to see whether something can be done.’
Deputies raised a number of general concerns about Alderney’s air connectivity. Deputy Yvonne Burford again voiced the idea that all inter-island services should be operated by one airline.
Deputy Roffey admitted that his committee and the airline did have concerns about the increase in fares forced by the Policy & Resources Committee’s decision to trim back the financial support available through the PSO.
He admitted that there were worries about a ‘spiralling downwards in demand’.
Deputy Roffey once again expressed support for the airline’s leadership team.
‘Both the chief executive and chairman of Aurigny have enormous experience and a great deal of nous when it comes to aviation and they are bringing that to bear to see whether there are better ways of cutting this particular cake.’
