The Executive Board contacted States leading Deputies with oversight of the airport and Aurigny with their concerns on our air links’ safety, reliability, and resilience. This year has been a challenging year so far for the Sates-owned airline. We feel that the government needed to know the true depth of our members’ concerns, and the need for action to return stability and confidence for the island’s travelling public and our visitors alike.

Sent to: Deputies, Roffey, Trott, Soulsby, Parkinson, Inder, Vermeulen.

Dear Deputy Roffey,

Last Thursday on behalf of our executive board I sent a short email to Aurigny’s CEO to ask him about recent recurrences of issues around delays and cancellations, but as yet have not received a response.

Our members and our customers are frustrated and angry with the ongoing situation, and whilst we appreciate the CEO must be a busy man at least an email acknowledging our concerns would have been the appropriate and professional response.

As you are aware in March we emailed all Deputies with our concerns (see message attached) at the time on reliability, resilience, and affordability, etc. We ended the email with……’We urge you not to let the next fifteen months drift by, but to take the necessary action to find a pathway to a stronger and more resilient model for our air links’. Five months on we have to ask what have our leaders and States representatives done to try and improve matters?

In recent years Aurigny have purchased three new ATR’s, two new Dornier’s, dry leased two more long-term ATR’s (one yet to arrive), wet leased numerous different aircraft on a regular basis, and with assistance from the States tried to introduce ATR’s into Alderney by pushing for a new airport, which to most of us with any grasp of reality was a project that would have cost many millions of pounds more than STSB said it would, sold the Jet for £?, and are now using Dornier’s to fly to UK airports to try and alleviate problems with continuing delays and cancellations.

Loss of hotel bookings are still occurring. Cancelled business meetings are still occurring. Add in the incident which took place last Sunday evening with the flight from Exeter (which begs the question, is safety being compromised at the moment?) and it all points to huge reputational and economic damage to our island.

We are so dependent on our air connectivity. It is vital to our economy. It cannot be taken for granted. It should be safe, reliable, resilient, ensure the customer has a comfortable traveling experience, and as affordable as possible.

We, and a growing number from the finance sector, plus of course many of our islands general public, are tired of excuses. Who is accountable for the state of our air links?

As it seems that the TMB are not strong enough to speak up on this situation it falls upon us to contact you again with our concerns.

It is abundantly clear to the majority of people who haven’t got their head in the sand that we have a major problem with our air links. If you were to score performance against the main aims of the Air Policy Framework (2021-2026) it would be difficult to score anything above 3 or 4 this year. Once again, we are pleading with you to take action, and work to a plan to resolve this critical situation. We are formally requesting a meeting with you to discuss this situation further.

Kind Regards,

Guernsey Hospitality Association Executive Board