Aurigny spends £2m. to bring in planes to help cover routes

Thursday 23 May 2024

Aurigny has spent £2m on bringing in aircraft and crew as it battles to maintain the schedule.

The figure was revealed in the States yesterday as members questioned the political body responsible for the airline about recent disruption.

One of the airline's three ATRs is out of action, the Embraer jet is restricted to flying limited hours and other cover has fallen through leading to cancellations and delays in the last few months as Aurigny also tried to fly new routes.

States Trading Supervisory Board Vice President Charles Parkinson gave an indication of the extra costs Aurigny is facing, but these will only become clear once detailed management accounts are made available.

"The cost of additional wet leasing is estimated to be in the region of £2m, but that is a gross cost because the wet leasing relieves Aurigny of some costs related to its own planes," he said.

Under a wet lease an aircraft is provided complete with crew, maintenance and insurance and the leasing airline pays by the hours operated.

Deputy Parkinson said that STSB had made it clear to Aurigny that the current citation was "unacceptable" and that recovery plans needed to be put in place now pending the arrival of two additional aircraft on long term lease in the third quarter of this year.

"Most of the disruption has taken place during the second quarter. We'll see management accounts for April and May at our next quarterly shareholder meeting with Aurigny in early June. [STSB President] Deputy Roffey has asked us for an analysis of the net costs of the disruption at that meeting. We will also discuss how best that information can be shared with States members and more widely."

The airline's cash position is strong, he reassured members, after two years of robust operating following the States agreeing to put more than £60m. into Aurigny in 2021 to cover losses up to that point.

"Aurigny does not anticipate having to call on the States for financial assistance in managing the current disruption.

"Subject to that remaining the case, the STSB's guidance toward it has been that it should put passenger interests ahead of financial ones when putting short term recovery plans in place."

The Embraer goes in for a major service in June and can only fly a limited number of hours until then.

Deputy Parkinson acknowledged that the airline had been unlucky with unrelated events that had brought about the parlous state of the service, but also stressed that it knew the jet would be out of service in June and that they could not lease in two additional ATRs until the Autumn.

"So there was always going to be a gap when they would not have enough aircraft in their own fleet to run their schedule and they have been let down by a third party they thought they had wet leasing arrangements in place.

"Clearly the situation is they allowed themselves to get into a very vulnerable position that anything that went wrong with any of their very small fleet would likely cause damage to the schedule. And as it happened, one of the three ATRs that they owned, did go wrong and is still out of service."

Earlier this week Aurigny emailed all passengers apologising and announcing changes to its schedule to help.