The airline last night stated an operating loss of £6.5m. for the year, compared to the airline’s £1.7m. profit in 2023.
Operating costs rose from £38m. to more than £50m., driven by ‘extraordinary wet lease costs’, so although the airline carried more passengers in the year than ever before (570,000 passengers, a 3% increase) and took more than £60m. in revenue, it still lost millions.
It blamed crew shortages on its initially-contracted wet lease supplier as being central to its problems, and this was made worse by damage to an aircraft following a hard landing in Guernsey.
But it said that it avoided £10m. of maintenance costs by selling the Embraer jet during the year.
And Aurigny has said that its wet lease requirements so far this year are down 80% year-on-year to the end of May, and its operational performance has improved, with 86% of flights arriving within 15 minutes of schedule, excluding delays caused by weather and air traffic control restrictions.
That is better than the average on-time arrival performance at Gatwick across all airlines from January to April.
‘The short-term pressures we faced in 2024, particularly the need for significant wet leasing, are easing, and the decisions made last year – including fleet simplification – will help secure longer-term financial stability,’ said chief financial officer Roger Pratt.
‘While this was a challenging year that in many ways both Aurigny and our passengers will wish to put behind them, we connected more people than ever before, supported the island’s visitor economy, and protected essential lifeline routes.
‘Aurigny will always be deeply committed to serving our community with care, pride and purpose, at the best value possible.’
Current P&R external relations lead Jonathan Le Tocq said a debate on the future of the airline, and aviation locally as a whole, including the runway and route licensing policy, would benefit the States, but it should not be based on the evidence of the figures attributed to Aurigny in the States 2024 accounts.
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