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Aurigny's CEO says passengers will see a sustained improvement in punctuality and reliability for the rest of this year, as the airline continues to recover from the damage caused to its reputation.
As he looks ahead to 2025, Nico Bezuidenhout is confident that 2024 will end on a positive note and that Aurigny will continue to regain passengers' trust .
He was speaking during an exclusive interview with Express that has been serialised this week and includes a podcast published today.
Pictured: Nico Bezuidenhout speaking one-on-one with Express Senior Reporter Laura Clayton.
Aurigny lost the faith of many frequent flyers earlier this year when it was plagued with delays and cancellations from February through to the summer months.
Technical issues grounding three planes, a failed wet-lease back up plan, and heavily criticised communications, saw public trust in Aurigny at an all time low.
A review of the airline's decision to restructure its fleet was initiated by its shareholder - the States of Guernsey's States Trading Supervisory Board - and it is due out this month.
But Mr Bezuidenhout believes that improvements in its service are already benefiting passengers.
"We already saw a situation where, for example, in June, our punctuality rate was back to the average in the UK, and that was true through to the end of July.
"August again happened to be, not as bad as February in terms of weather, but August was the foggiest since 1997 so much better than February, but still challenging.
"We also lost capacity from an ACMI provider in the middle of August. That particular carrier had to remove its aircraft to Toulouse, where it had to undergo a nose landing gear inspection check. They found the defects and it delayed the return of that aircraft. We ended up replacing it, but there were 10 days of disruption suffered as a consequence.
"Subsequent to that for the month of September, our punctuality rate is again back to the UK average. So I believe that September, October, November, December - weather aside - you will see punctuality rates back to normal."
Pictured: The review into Aurigny's fleet restructure is due out this month.
Where the trust has been broken, Mr Bezuidenhout knows it won't be easy to regain it, but he is confident in Aurigny's ability to do so.
"In the end the trust was broken one flight at a time and it will be earned one flight at a time," he said.
In looking forward to 2025, Mr Bezuidenout doesn't want to dismiss all of 2024 as a bad news year.
"I think that there's been a number of successes which we, unfortunately because of the magnitude of the challenges, we end up overlooking.
"The reintroduction of London City has been successful. Passenger volumes, load factors are pretty much on par with what we see in Gatwick. So we have effected a change in the way that we look at travel between Guernsey and London.
"Historically, when we looked at Guernsey to London, it's always been Gatwick and almost nothing else. Whereas today we've got 75% of our volumes go through Gatwick, 25% goes through London City so that that's been a great victory. We've increased the level of the frequency of connectivity between Guernsey and the City of London by 34% this year.
"We are, as a jurisdiction, one of the most well connected by frequency jurisdictions to the financial center that's London, and it's specifically important given reliance on the financial services sector that we've got on this on this island."
Pictured: Aurigny currently offers flights to London via both Gatwick and City airports.
Despite the successes that Mr Bezuidenhout is claiming for 2024, there is no denying the damage that has been caused to Aurigny's reputation through the combination of broken aeroplanes, bad weather, and poor communication earlier in the year.
Acknowledging that, Mr Bezuidenhout knows the airline's finances will take a hit.
Having posted profits in 2022 and 2023 - following losses every year Aurigny has been in States ownership since 2003 - this year's accounts, due out in the Spring, will make solemn reading.
However, Mr Bezuidenhout thinks the recent improvements in reliability and punctuality will continue and that Aurigny will return to profit in the future - with a mandate to return any money made back in to the business to maintain connectivity and reduce fares.
"This year is not financially very successful. It's not been successful at all financially, because our commitment is to the island," he said.
"We've spent every penny we needed to spend to try and recover services.
"But looking forward, as far as next year is concerned, we've proven that the business can be profitable. We've done the fleet change, we've done the network changes, so I do look forward to a good next year."
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