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Aurigny is temporarily "streamlining" its Gatwick service after seeing a drop off in sales over the last week - apparently due to the Coronavirus - with Gatwick seeing the largest impact.
As a result, the airline said from next week until 18 April 2020 it would be reducing the number of flights on its Gatwick service and cancelling some of the ATR rotations during the week, where demand is low.
Mark Darby, Aurigny's CEO, said: “We have seen a fall in demand for our Gatwick service as well as an increase in ‘no shows,’ as customers respond to travel concerns worldwide in the wake of the Coronavirus.
“By cancelling some of our morning and evening ATR rotations we can operate our Embraer jet to full capacity and mitigate any losses in revenue and avoid flying aircraft half full. In addition, it means that we maintain spare crew capacity in the event that the virus reaches our shores and our own staff are unwell.”
Pictured: Flybe buckled under financial pressure this week, also because of coronavirus.
Aurigny also announced today it would be starting two new routes next week - to Birmingham and Exeter - and said it had made the decision to do this after Flybe's collapse.
Customers currently booked on the Gatwick flights affected will be contacted soon by Aurigny and offered an alternative flight within two hours of their booking.
The States-owned airline said it was continually monitoring the situation and was only introducing these measures because of the "slowdown in demand" and "should the market change then we will react accordingly".
Pictured top: Aurigny's Jet, the Embraer 195.
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