Aurigny review finds no misjudgement by management

The review highlighted the availability of pilots as a significant concern

A review of Aurigny's fleet and decision-making in 2024 has found "no evidence of negligence or gross misjudgement by management".

The investigation was commissioned by the States Trading Supervisory Board (STSB) after a year of disruption to the States-owned airline.

It highlighted "one significant concern" for the future of the company, the availability and retention of pilots.

STSB President Peter Roffey said the findings "should reassure islanders", while Aurigny said it had started a phased launch of its summer schedule.

Routes to East Midlands, Liverpool and Stansted have been dropped from the new schedule

Routes to East Midlands, Liverpool and Stansted have been dropped from the new schedule.

At a press conference, the airline's CEO Nico Bezuidenhout said the company would not make a profit this year, and that it was mainly because of the cost of wet-leasing a number of replacement aircraft.

The fifth ATR-72 in Aurigny's fleet is due to arrive in the island in mid-November, despite being scheduled for October.

'We unreservedly apologise'

Kevin George, chairman of the airline's board, said: "We completely understand the impact and consequences that Aurigny’s reliability challenges have had on the Guernsey community and unreservedly apologise for this."

Two former British Airways staff, Captain Douglas Brown and Mark Elliott, undertook the review for STSB, costing £65,000.

In their findings, the reviewers said pilot turnover at the airline had been high but it was not a "unique" problem for Aurigny.

They said the airline needed to ensure it took "extraordinary measures" to secure and retain qualified flight crew to operate the aircraft's published schedule.

The authors said an overriding concern remained "a shortfall of pilots".

Jet sale 'right decision'

The review said Aurigny's decision to sell its Embraer jet in November 2023 was "right" as otherwise the situation "might have been worse than experienced".

Mr Bezuidenhout said keeping the jet would have cost the company £10m, as it was due for a specific round of maintenance.

Aurigny CEO Nico Bezuidenhout said he expected improved performance from the airline in 2025.

Aurigny's plan was to replace the jet with two ATR aircraft, but the sourcing of those permanent replacements was delayed.

STSB's review blamed the disruption faced by the airline on a series of technical issues, which the authors said "couldn't have been planned for".

Roffey agreed that issues out of the airline's control had contributed to what the airline's CEO had described as a "difficult" year.

"The late delivery of its newly leased aircraft left Aurigny very exposed to factors that were outside of its control, which included failures by some of its wet-lease suppliers," Roffey said.

"The reviewers concluded these events could not reasonably have been foreseen."

'Collaborative approach'

In August, officials apologised after an Aurigny flight had to turn around and return to its destination 244m (800ft) from Guernsey's runway.

The airline said air traffic control had agreed to extend its opening hours until 23:35 but the flight missed this window by about "90 seconds".

As part of the review the authors recommended "a review of the airport’s opening hours and staffing needs" and said they believed" a more collaborative approach" between the airport and airlines would be good.

Earlier in 2024, the airport, according to the reviewers, introduced a "hard" closure at 21:15 on a Tuesday with reduced scope for extensions, which it said was objected to by two airlines.

The airline's board agreed with the recommendation there needed to be better co-operation between the airport and airlines.