Aurigny in profit for second year running - boss

Airline bosses were not able to confirm the exact amount of profit the company made in 2023

Airline Aurigny made a profit in 2023, the company's CEO says.

Nico Bezuidenhout confirmed for the second year running the Guernsey States-owned airline was in the black, but added he could not give exact figures yet.

The company recorded a surplus in 2022 of £3m, having been forecast to deliver a £1m deficit.

He said: "Our financial result for last year was a marginal profit, the year before was because of accounting treatments, whereas from operations last year we got a pure profit."

Currently, Aurigny is working with a number of companies to provide crews and planes through wet leasing arrangements as parts of its fleet are maintained.

Mr Bezuidenhout confirmed the cost of these leasing arrangements was between £500,000 and £1m.

The company currently has arrangements with Luxwing, Avanti Air and is set to utilise one with JumpAir.

The cover is partly needed as Aurigny's jet is set to leave service this month, but is due to stay on-island to provide cover in May.

New staff

In the last year, the company has hired two new senior staff, a chief financial officer and chief commercial officer, including Wolf Meyer who Mr Bezuidenhout used to work with.

Mr Bezuidenhout has also defended the company's decision to hire his wife as its head of IT.

He said: "I didn't hire any of these people myself because of the potential risk of the optics; that process was run independently.

"Aurigny needed a new head of IT as we had a system change last year that wasn't run effectively.

"We needed someone with experience and we advertised publicly."

About the company's new website, he said that, while it was the same as the system operated by Blue Islands and Loganair, he did admit it could do with improvement.

"We've been going through a process to stabilise the situation. The current website could be better," he said.

Aurigny's CEO confirmed the clear-vision technology had been in operation for around a year.

In 2018, Aurigny said it was investing in aircraft with Clear Vision technology to help planes land in fog.

Mr Bezuidenhout said the technology was not "exactly fog-busting".

But he added that it did help and had been in operation for the last year.

"There have been a good 50 to 60 flights which have landed which would usually have been diverted because of the technology," he said.

John Fernandez, Political Reporter analysis

Nico Bezuidenhout had built up some serious capital with politicians and the public in his tenure at the helm of Aurigny.

This year's "black swan" event, which saw serious disruption almost went some way to demolishing it.

He now has an uphill task this year to ensure the airline's brand doesn't take another battering as it did at the end of February this year.

News the company is once again in the black will be welcome, with concerns about the airline's finances a constant point of discussion for deputies.

But the question now will be, what does "doing more for less" mean in practice, and will services suffer in favour of the financial bottom line?