"Best years have been burnt off the jet"

Friday 01 November 2019

An independent review of Aurigny suggests the Embraer Jet should be replaced by ATRs in the coming years, but the airline's shareholder has dismissed rumours that it is already up for sale.

"That is not true" was the response from STSB President Peter Ferbrache when Express put to him rumours that Aurigny was looking to sell the Embraer 195, which is its largest capacity aircraft.

Consultancy firm Nyras, whose review of Aurigny's efficiency as a company was published yesterday, said the jet had been optimised to be profitable by serving the Gatwick route. 

However, the airline industry specialists said it had passed its peak years and would require increasing maintenance in the years to come.

Pictured: Deputy Ferbrache dispelled rumours that the jet was for sale.

Coupled with the inefficiency of running a mixed fleet which also includes ATRs and Dorniers, Nyras said its sale should be considered in the near future. 

"Having three aircraft types across a fleet of eight/nine aircraft is highly inefficient from an engineering perspective. This is in terms of the breadth of skills needed in the team and the ability to negotiate competitive contracts for services.

"Now that the best years have been burnt off the jet, it is now a mid-life aircraft requiring greater maintenance focus and cash cost will rise significantly, albeit the accounting reserves should smooth this progression. Knowing the longer-term plan for the aircraft and the required level of Technical Dispatch Reliability is critical for the maintenance team in its planning to make it cost efficient. This is because duplicate maintenance cost can arise or a lack of investment in the aircraft damaging reputation.

"At some point in the coming years it may be appropriate to consider replacing the Jet with ATR capacity to better align the fleet. This would need to be in the context of London capacity to Guernsey and the residual value of the owned aircraft relative to its resale value."

Pictured: Questions have been extended to Aurigny about the future of the jet and any recent maintenance it has had. 

Asked about the jet, Deputy Ferbrache said timing was crucial when selling off aircraft. A case in point was the deal to purchase three new ATRs with Clearvision technology, which saw Aurigny include its soon-to-be-redundant ATRs in the deal. 

"Aurigny have had that [the jet] under their consideration for some time," he said. "It is right to be highlighted within the report that it is better selling and getting the best price at that time, than selling it and getting next to nothing."

"The point with the jet is that it was purchased because they needed it for the capacity on the Gatwick route and, frankly, because people like flying on the jet."