Seven new Guernsey pilots hired due to shortage

Aurigny's chief executive said the recruitment was a step towards "ensuring operational resilience"

Guernsey's airline Aurigny has hired seven pilots as part of a recruitment campaign.

The airline said there was an industry-wide pilot shortage and staff illness in Guernsey at the start of the year.

Philip Smallwood, chief operations officer at Aurigny, said the island faced "significant challenges securing the right talent and basing them in Guernsey".

He said he was pleased to have hired seven new pilots, and they would now move to the training phase.

'Fleet stability'

The new appointments are set to help support peak summer flying from July, the company said.

Nico Bezuidenhout, chief executive of Aurigny, said: "I want to reassure the community that we are not headed towards disruption on the scale that we experienced last year.

"We now have fleet stability and the recruitment of these pilots is another step on the road to ensuring operational resilience for the summer."

The airline had previously said pilot shortages were its top priority.