The airline said that the short-term disruption was facilitating the training of new pilots and would ultimately improve and stabilise the service in the medium-term.
From today until Saturday there will be just two return flights between the islands each day instead of the normal four. Southampton services will be unaffected.
Aurigny has also organised a ferry connection between the islands.
Philip Saunders, Aurigny’s chief commercial officer, said the disruption was enabling partner airline Skybus to bring its cohort of pilots up to strength.
‘We have been working with Skybus to bring about greater stability, and it is no secret that a shortage of pilots and pilot training has been one of the pressure points,’ he said.
‘Skybus needs to complete the training of additional pilots and the experienced pilots who are involved in that training are also involved in flying scheduled daily services for Aurigny.
‘We have agreed that those training pilots come off their scheduled services for a few days to ensure that the training of additional pilots can be completed as soon as possible and in the interest of improving the service in the longer term.’
He said the airline had acted quickly to minimise disruption and apologised to passengers.
But some Alderney States members were unhappy with the move.
‘I’m extremely concerned about this for the public, both in respect of medical flights and passengers wanting to travel in the busy summer season when transport links are key,’ said Alex Snowdon.
‘It is very disappointing to receive last-minute news of reduced services. I would have expected a contingency plan in place to ensure that planes and pilots were available rather than trying to divert onto little ferries the people who had booked to fly. Better forward planning was needed.’
He reiterated a call for Guernsey’s Policy & Resources Committee to confirm whether the current service levels were meeting the terms of the public service obligation.
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