Travel schedule: New Aurigny plans for quasi-lockdown

Friday 20 March 2020

Aurigny has updated its flight schedule in line with the stricter border controls that have been brought in to tackle the spread of coronavirus across the Bailiwick.

Anyone returning to the islands from any destination now has to self isolate for 14 days, and so Aurigny is going to reduce the number of flights its fleet makes.

This new rota will come into affect on Saturday, 21 March. It will continue up to and including the 19 April, but is subject to change at short notice.

The schedule is as follows, as per Aurigny's statement: 

"Revised schedule from Saturday 21st March 2020.

"For the period 21 March to 19 April we are suspending services to Birmingham, Bristol, East Midlands, Exeter, London Stansted, and reducing the frequency of services to Gatwick, Southampton and Manchester. Please note that this is a temporary measure to reduce costs in this unprecedented period of low demand. We are hoping to resume normal services for the busy summer period and are presently planning for suspended routes to be reintroduced on the 20 of April. This recommencement date will be regularly reviewed and may be adjusted in accordance with demand for travel. Regular notices will be issued about our plans and timetable."

If you are travelling over this coming weekend 21/22 March, you should already have received a message if your flight has been changed.

Pictured: Aurigny asked customers to avoid using their call centre if possible. 

The planned schedule from 23 March to 19 April is detailed below:

Gatwick Service: twice daily flights as follows:-

GR604 – Guernsey to Gatwick – Departing at 10.20

GR605 – Gatwick to Guernsey – Departing at 11.50

GR606 – Guernsey to Gatwick – Departing at 14.50

GR607 – Gatwick to Guernsey – Departing at 16.30

Southampton: daily services as follows:

GR656 – Guernsey to Southampton – Departing at 14.40

GR657 – Southampton to Guernsey – Departing at 15.55

Manchester: daily services as follows:

GR670 - Guernsey to Manchester – Departing at 1040

GR671 - Manchester to Guernsey – Departing at 1235

Aurigny said: "We appreciate these are exceptional times and some passengers may choose, or be obligated, to change or cancel their flights."

The airline also said it would release information on Alderney services in due course. 

Pictured: Aurigny said it could take three to six months for refund claims to be processed. 

Aurigny said if people now want to cancel their flights, some bookings will still be eligible for a full refund, while others could be exchanged for credit.

The airlines policy on cancellations is currently as follows:

"1 - If you now would like to cancel your booking: From 16 March 2020, you may still receive a full refund if you cancel, but this will now be in the form of a credit voucher valid for one year. You will need to cancel your booking using the “manage” section on our website then send an email to creditvoucher@aurigny.com with your booking reference asking for a refund. We will then issue you a credit voucher for future use, please be aware that we will process this as quickly as we can, but it may take several weeks to process.

"2 - If you have a reservation to travel on a flight to or from Guernsey on or before the 19 of April and your flight has been cancelled or changed by us: You will be rebooked onto a different service and you will be sent these details by email with the options to accept the changes, reject the changes or cancel the whole booking. Selecting “reject the changes” will give you further options

"In exceptional circumstances we will consider a monetary refund for those who will have no use for a flight in the future," said Aurigny. "In this instance please e-mail refunds@aurigny.com Please note: We would ask our customers to be patient in these exceptional circumstances as it may take between 3 and 6 months to process your claim."

A spokesperson for Aurigny said: "The situation is changing very quickly, and we are obliged to follow Government advice. Should we have to reduce services further or offer only one lifeline route then the flights GR606 and GR607 to and from Gatwick will be the last flights to be cancelled.

"We will do our best to maintain this revised schedule for at least 48 hours after any further Government instructions, but in this current climate we are unable to guarantee this. Please do not call our call centre if possible as they are experiencing a high demand in calls.

"As ever, Aurigny’s main priority is the wellbeing of its customers and staff. We would especially like to thank those staff working in our call centre over the past week, who have dealt with an unprecedented number of calls due to exceptional circumstances."

Pictured top: The Aurigny Jet.