The States Trading Supervisory Board, Aurigny’s shareholder on behalf of the States, announced last week that the airline now favoured using Twin Otters in place of Dorniers, which it currently uses on the route, and was working with two potential suppliers to secure damp leases.
Aurigny previously planned to fly much larger ATR aircraft into Alderney, but have now abandoned that idea.
The Guernsey Aviation Action Group and a former pilot had their own suggestions for a suitable option.
GAAG chairman Barry Cash said that Twin Otter or Islander aircraft would be suitable, but particularly the latter, which he said comes in a piston engine version and would have cheaper operational costs compared to turbine engines used by Dorniers and Twin Otters.
‘We’ve always thought that the idea of flying ATR 72s into Alderney was ridiculous and would never work,’ he said.
The group has backed the idea of using smaller planes partly because they would be able to land and take off from the island’s two grass runways if necessary, effectively giving it the option of using six runways, depending on the wind direction.
Dorniers could also use the grass runway but Mr Cash said it seemed as if Aurigny did not look into doing that.
A former pilot and long-time member of the Guernsey Aero Club committee, Rob Le Page, agreed that Islanders or Twin Otters would be better options for the Alderney routes.
‘A Skybus Twin Otter came here about two weeks ago and it only used about 1/10th of our runway,’ he said.
‘Islanders would be first class. The new version may even be an 11-seater. They’d be very versatile.’
While Twin Otters can carry up to 19 passengers – the same as the Dornier – Islanders can carry only up to nine at present.
The STSB’s announcement on the first day of last week’s States meeting was followed by the Assembly instructing the Policy & Resources Committee to investigate the idea of re-establishing an inter-island route network between Guernsey, Jersey and Alderney, as well as between Alderney and Southampton, using a small fleet of ‘appropriate code B aircraft’ – planes with a wingspan of 15m-23m.
The move was led by Deputy Yvonne Burford, who placed an amendment to a debate on the future of the Alderney airport runway.
‘If one could bring together again all of the inter-island routes, all of a sudden it makes for a viable route network for a small fleet of small aircraft, such as Twin Otters, to operate a service,’ she said.
Aurigny subsequently told the Guernsey Press that its decision to review the planes it flew to Alderney came about ‘given it may not be possible to operate ATR 72-600s on the inter-island route because of escalating costs and no immediate improvement to the Alderney runway’.
Chief operations officer Philip Smallwood said it was evaluating several planes of a similar type, size and capacity.
‘I would like to stress that, while we are actively exploring options, no decisions have been made at this stage,’ he said.
‘Our priority is delivering a high-quality dependable service to our customers across Guernsey, Alderney and the UK.
‘This commitment will remain unchanged, regardless of the aircraft type we operate.’
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