Aurigny’s finances would be worse if it still had jet
DESPITE spending millions on wet lease aircraft, Aurigny’s finances finished 2024 in better state than if it had held on to the Embraer jet, the airline and its political bosses have admitted.
The airline will make a loss in 2024, which had been indicated to be in the region of £1.5m. last autumn.
Although it carried more passengers in 2024 than the previous year, the airline had to spend hundreds of thousands on late fees at the airport and spend regularly on wet lease aircraft, either as part of its fleet transition or to replace planes suffering technical problems. The States’ Trading Supervisory Board said, in response to questions from Deputy Simon Vermeulen, that the wet lease arrangements were significantly cheaper than the cost of maintenance that would have been needed on the Embraer jet if Aurigny had not sold it earlier in the year.
‘I can confirm that those costs will be materially less than the £10m. in expenditure on planned maintenance that would have otherwise been incurred in 2024/25 on the Embraer had it been retained in Aurigny’s fleet,’ said STSB president Peter Roffey.
The airline’s costs also included repairs to corrosion damage on the Embraer, settling loans with the States for buying the jet in the first place, and political direction that passenger interests should outweigh the financial costs of wetleasing aircraft.
Aurigny said that aside from the exceptional costs incurred, its underlying performance ‘remains positive’ and it would have broken even for the year, consistent with the positive results it achieved in 2022 and 2023.
The airline had planned to use one wet-lease operator for 10 months during 2024, who would have covered scheduled and unplanned maintenance and cover during the fleet transition process, including the sale of the jet.
But the operator let Aurigny down and over the course of the year it used six other operators for wet-leasing, including two whose services were terminated following operational incidents.
The full wet lease costs will be disclosed in the annual accounts, expected in mid-2025.
Deputy Vermeulen asked about compensation costs for cancelled flights, lost luggage and hotel accommodation, but the STSB said those costs would be included in its annual financial statements.
