Another day of significant disruption at the airport yesterday took the number of flights cancelled or delayed since the weekend to more than 50.
The Guernsey Hospitality Association represents 45 businesses providing accommodation, 32 bars and restaurants, and more than 20 associated businesses.
‘This has been an ongoing issue, and there’s a general apathy around the island that flight disruptions have become the norm,’ said president Alan Sillett.
‘The island’s air links are in a complete mess. We’re suffering due to the lack of punctuality from our airlines.
‘This is having a massive impact on the local economy and small businesses and undermines Guernsey as an attractive destination.’
He said that the reliability of air carriers was a critical issue for the sector, and called for a complete overhaul of the island’s air transport policy.
‘The next cohort of deputies need to rip up the current aviation framework policy document and start over. They should be putting the island first, not an airline company.’
Other sectors of the tourism economy are also being hit.
The head of the Guernsey Taxi Drivers Association also voiced their concerns. ‘This is costing taxi drivers lots of time and money,’ said Peter Blondel, ‘it’s about time that all the disruptions get sorted out.’
Yesterday multiple flights were delayed and cancelled. Four scheduled arrivals were cancelled and five were delayed by more than an hour. Three departures were cancelled and six delayed by more than 60 minutes.
Evie Shackleton was booked to fly to Manchester with Aurigny early on Saturday morning. She learned on arrival at the airport that the flight had been cancelled and she was rebooked to Birmingham for Monday.
When she arrived at the airport yesterday, she was informed by the check-in desk that the flight would leave on time but there would be a diversion to Manchester to drop off a crew member. Although the flight did leave as scheduled and landed at around 2.45pm, the passengers were left waiting in the plane at Birmingham Airport for 45 minutes before they were allowed to disembark.
Aurigny acknowledged the disruption and apologised to all customers affected.
‘In recent days, we have encountered unforeseen technical issues with our aircrafts, alongside a higher-than-expected level of crew sickness,’ the airline said.
It said it was now acting to get things back on track with more support from Avanti Air, which operated Manchester flights yesterday with a Dash 8-Q400 plane, and increasing its crew capacity from 1 July.
The airline said it had proactively adjusted its flight programme in recent weeks to better align with available resources, achieving an on-time performance of 83% for May.
Blue Islands, which cancelled more than 20 flights from its daily schedule last week until the start of the summer holidays, did not respond to a request for comment. It is known that it has more than half its fleet out of action.
The Tourism Management Board also did not respond to a Guernsey Press inquiry.
The GHA has invited election candidates to an event today to discuss its ‘manifesto’ of election priorities.
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