Airline could have run a mid-week service
AS A former resident of Guernsey and retired from the construction industry, my wife and I now live in the UK. We still have friends and family in Guernsey and therefore regularly fly from East Midlands with Aurigny. It came as a shock when our travel agent confirmed that there were no flights for six weeks and that they had no idea why. It became very clear while reading the Press on the plane on Saturday 15 October the reason why. There is no excuse for this appalling decision and it is an absolute disgrace to treat regular fliers this way. No flights from East Midlands for six weeks is just not acceptable.
Surely, as a service to the general regular flying customer, some sort of midweek service could have been made available.
Certainly top marks for customer service and appreciation.
Other departure points were considered but at an unacceptable price, as well as longer journey times made it not viable.
With Condor battling the expected poor sea conditions, winter timetable and the other normal operating problems, visitor numbers as well as business travellers will be hit very hard.
More importantly, the hotel industry will experience a massive downturn in business.
Once again, well done Aurigny, your regular customers are not impressed.
MIKE CLUER,
25, Spilsby Meadows,
Halton Road,
Spilsby,
Lancs,
PE23 5LA.
Editor's footnote: Mark Darby, Aurigny's CEO replies:
Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your correspondent on this matter.
East Midlands Airport is closed until 19 December on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays while they repair their runway. As the demand for services from East Midlands is highly seasonal, in the winter season we only operate our East Midlands flights on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays.
As the vast majority of our customers incorporate the Sunday flight into their itineraries, it was not economic to offer the remaining services on Tuesdays and Thursdays so we took the decision not to operate from East Midlands until the runway works have been completed. Continued operation during this period of disruption would have incurred substantial losses.
I appreciate that this is not convenient (indeed, my own daughter who lives in Loughborough has had to alter her plans to travel to Guernsey and fly from Manchester next week). However, I note that your correspondent lives in Spilsby in Lincolnshire. They might consider our alternative services from Leeds Bradford Airport (20 minutes longer drive than to East Midlands) or Stansted Airport which would add 30 minutes to their normal two hour 20 minute drive time.
I hope that this addresses your reader's concerns.
