And this was followed by a further incident this morning.
Guernsey Ports said the two incidents might have involved the same man.
Airport director Richard Thomasson said yesterday that a review of security at the airport would now be undertaken to see if improvements were needed.
‘We have well-established aviation security arrangements and procedures, which are regularly tested to deal with such incidents. As a result, on both occasions, the individual was proactively intercepted and detained and then handed over to Guernsey Police.
‘We take such incidents very seriously, and we will be conducting a full review of our existing security arrangements in consultation with Guernsey Police and our aviation security regulator.’ On Saturday, before the airport and its runway opened for the day, a man broke into the aerodrome from the north side boundary of the airport. He was intercepted and detained by airport security and then handed over to police.
All airside areas and aircraft were checked, as per standard aviation security protocols and requirements before the airport opened.
The incident caused only minor disruption to flights, with the first flight of the day, the GR670 to Manchester leaving 21 minutes late.
‘Operational disruption was kept to a minimum through the activation of established and tested procedures,’ said Mr Thomasson.
‘We apologise for the minor delays but the safety of all users of Guernsey Airport will always be our number one priority.’
Police confirmed that they had responded and arrested a 51-year-old man at the airport. He was reported to court for trespassing on the aerodrome. The man was also arrested for failing to appear in court on a previous occasion and is now due in court this week in relation to that matter. This morning's incident saw the man apprehended at about 9.45am. Operations were suspended while the individual was detained and arrested.
An inbound Aurigny flight from Gatwick that was due to land held overhead for around 10 minutes. No other services were affected, and the airport reopened shortly after 10am, after all airside areas were checked.
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