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One of Aurigny's smallest planes was seen in Nottingham this week, as the Dornier flew to East Midlands and back in a drastic change to its usual rotations.
The smallest aircraft in Aurigny's fleet only seats 19 passengers, and is usually used on the Guernsey/Alderney, Alderney/Southampton, and Guernsey/Southampton routes.
Those routes have a maximum flight time of around 45minutes over a distance of around 70 miles with the inter-island route just a short 20minute flight.
On Thursday lunchtime, the aircraft headed north to Nottingham on a longer scheduled service, before returning to Guernsey.
Pictured: Aurigny used a Dornier on the East Midlands route earlier this week. Data from FlightRadar24.
The Dornier's have the slowest speed and the shortest range out of Aurigny's fleet, at 223 knots (257 mph) and 350 miles (563 km) respectively.
That compares to a speed of 542 knots (624 mph) and a range of 2,500 miles (4,023 km) for the Embraer Jet and a speed of 276 knots (318 mph) and a range of 2,500 miles (4,023 km) for the ATRs.
The Jet seats 122 passengers, with the ATRs able to carry up to 72 - compared to the 19 passengers a Dornier can carry.
These larger aircraft are most often used on flights further afield than Alderney and Southampton, including the East Midlands route.
Pictured: A Dornier flew from Guernsey to Nottingham on Thursday afternoon.
Aurigny has not commented on its decision to use a Dornier on the East Midlands route, but the airline has struggled with plane availability this year.
It is leasing some aircraft to bolster availability as its own reduced fleet has been compounded by maintenance issues.
The Guernsey/Gatwick, Guernsey/Alderney, and Southampton routes are 'lifeline links' for both islands, meaning they must be provided by the States-owned airline. Other airlines can apply to operate those routes through the 'quasi-open skies' policy Guernsey has, but there haven't been any applications to do so.
With at least one of Aurigny's ATRs out of action and the Embraer Jet due to be sold, Aurigny is understood to have been planning to test a Dornier on the Gatwick route tomorrow lunchtime.
An image shared with Express is purported to show seat allocations on a Dornier for a midday flight tomorrow.
The airline is now advertising an ATR flying to Gatwick at 11:00 instead.
Pictured: It had looked like Aurigny was planning to use a Dornier to fly between Guernsey and Gatwick at 12:00 tomorrow but the available flights now show an ATR at 11:00 instead.
London is 192miles from Guernsey meaning a Dornier could easily reach Gatwick but with a slower speed the flight time will be longer than in an ATR or the Jet.
Flight times for the previously scheduled flights - believed to have been intended to be operated by a Dornier - between Gatwick and Guernsey on Saturday were advertised at being 80 minutes long compared to 60 minutes now, using an ATR.
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