The airline had intended to use only larger ATR aircraft in the future, but it has been forced to reconsider because of uncertainty caused by the soaring cost estimates for repairing and extending Alderney’s runway.
The new plan still involves Aurigny owning only ATRs, but Twin Otters, which typically seat 18-20 passengers, would replace Dorniers on the Alderney routes under an arrangement known as damp leasing.
It was revealed at yesterday’s States meeting by Peter Roffey, president of the States Trading Supervisory Board, the airline’s shareholder on behalf of the States.
‘The planes would belong to somebody else but would be badged in Aurigny colours and flown by Aurigny crew,’ said Deputy Roffey.
‘The biggest advantage of that is huge cost savings from maintenance, with Aurigny having to maintain only one type of aircraft and the owner of the Twin Otters, which would also have a number of other Twin Otters, looking after their maintenance.
‘That is their concept. They are talking to two large owners of Twin Otters. I’m not going to name them because it’s a competitive situation.’
The new plan still requires approval from the STSB and the Policy & Resources Committee, which is responsible for the public service obligation under which Aurigny receives a seven-figure annual subsidy to fly the Alderney-Guernsey and Alderney-Southampton routes.
Deputy Roffey said negotiations were still ‘financially and commercially sensitive’ but he had received permission to share Aurigny’s latest fleet ideas to scotch ‘so many false rumours’ which had been circulating recently.
He also revealed that Aurigny was considering another change to make Alderney’s air links more secure, following a weekend on which the airline wet-leased a Twin Otter from Isles of Scilly operator Skybus to replace a Dornier with technical problems.
‘I know Aurigny is also looking at the possibility of having a third aircraft on standby for medevac [medical air transfers] so that they don’t constantly have to take passenger aircraft out of circulation whenever a medevac comes about,’ said Deputy Roffey.
‘Aurigny believe this would not only boost resilience considerably by making sure that replacement aircraft were available when maintenance was going on, but it would also reduce the cost of the public service obligation.’
Alderney representative Alex Snowdon, whose question to the STSB president prompted his announcement about Alderney’s new plans, said ‘it was great to see the support’ which allowed the island’s air links to be re-opened last weekend in the face of unexpected difficulties.
Two years ago deputies threw out Yvonne Burford’s two-part proposal for a smaller refurbishment of Alderney’s runway, at a lower estimated capital cost, and the re-establishment of a route network between Guernsey, Alderney and Jersey, operated by a single airline with smaller aircraft, for which it was widely accepted that Twin Otters would be ideal.
The future of Alderney Airport is due to be debated later at the States meeting, after years of indecision and overruns in budget estimates for various plans to deal with the poor condition of the runway and other problems.
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