Fog pushes up average Aurigny delay

Friday 10 August 2018

Aurigny is hoping new planes fitted with fog-busting technology will cut its average delays after the airline was ranked sixth worst for punctuality in the UK.

According to data from the Civil Aviation Authority, Aurigny services were delayed on average by 20 minutes last year.

However, a spokesman for the airline said that behind the headline, the reasons for the delays were largely outside of its control. And now, it had a plan to help cut this figure.

“While these figures may not appear favourable, they are based on 2017 when our most significant delays were caused by severe weather disruption and diversions.

"If, like many other airlines, we cancelled our flights at the first sight of bad weather, we would cut our ‘average disruption time’ considerably. However, as a local community airline, we pride ourselves on doing everything we can to get our customers where they need to be."

Future bad weather could be a problem of the past, however, as earlier this year a prototype ATR with brand new technology in its nose, which allows it to land in fog, came to the island, giving Aurigny pilots a chance to test drive it at the airport.

The technology works in a similar way to night vision, with the ClearVision cameras installed in the nose of the aircraft giving the pilot a clear view of the runway through a headset.

The spokesperson continued: “Poor visibility continues to be one of the biggest challenges we face and 2017 was particularly challenging, with more than 60 days of disruption in Guernsey, including knock-on delays. Conscious of this, we are always keeping a close eye on new technology being developed, and aircraft manufacturer ATR has approached us with an exciting opportunity to be the launch partner for its fog-busting ClearVision system, available on new ATR-72 600 aircraft [pictured].

“This technology would make a dramatic difference to our ability to land in poor visibility and change things for the better for Guernsey and our customers. To this end, we have signed a non-binding Letter of Intent for new ATR aircraft and we plan to take our business case to the States later this Autumn.”

Reducing this disruption will also save the airline considerable sums of money, with fog disruption last year costing it, on average, £100,000 a day.

Wizz Air topped the worst-delayed airlines with 22.9 minutes, with Scandinavian airlines getting travelers away with the lowest delay, of just seven minute on average.