Aurigny apologises for flight disruption on Guernsey

Poor weather, unexpected aircraft incidents and supply issues led to the delays and cancellations, Mr Ghai said

An airline boss has offered an "unqualified apology" to passengers who had flights disrupted in Guernsey during the past week.

On Monday, members of the island's hospitality sector questioned whether problems would hit the tourism season.

Sudeep Ghai, Aurigny's chief commercial officer, said the airline was working on plans to avoid summer disruption.

Poor weather, unexpected aircraft incidents and supply issues led to the delays and cancellations, he said.

Mr Ghai said: "I want to offer an unqualified apology to all of our customers for the disruption they've had to endure over the last seven or eight days."

Looking to the summer, he said that the aircraft in scheduled maintenance would come into service and the States-owned airline was growing its fleet from three to five.

'Back-up supply'

During the past week, replacement aircraft were running with reduced passenger numbers due to the different sizes of the aircraft and the length of Guernsey's runway.

Mr Ghai said the airline had reacted on an "ad-hoc" basis but that "going forward, that's not the approach we will adopt".

To secure resilience for the fleet, he said Aurigny would have "a back-up supply from third party contractors with established reputations".

He added that the airline would welcome a "considered and robust analysis of airlinks within the island".

"In the end, we exist to serve the state of Guernsey and the people of Guernsey," he said.