Aurigny suspends Jersey-Guernsey route

Tuesday 11 February 2020

Aurigny has suspended its route between Jersey and Guernsey less than a year after re-launching it, claiming there isn’t enough interest to make it sustainable.

Flights booked with the airline from 1 March onwards will now be cancelled, and passengers will receive full refunds.

Aurigny said it introduced the twice daily route in May 2019 in response to consumer demand at the time, with timings specifically aimed at the business traveller market.

The route was also supposed to help the financially struggling flight provider, whose losses in 2020 were predicted to reach nearly £10m, to achieve its objective of reaching a 'break-even position' set by its shareholder, the States of Guernsey. 

However, Chief Executive Mark Darby says that, although the airline achieved its aim of introducing more competition in the market, the route hasn’t been as popular as expected. 

Pictured: Aurigny's Chief Executive Mark Darby.

“We returned to the route because our customers were telling us that prices were high, service was erratic and air links between the islands were unreliable. We had seen that numbers had decreased and more people were choosing to communicate digitally, thus missing out on critical social connectivity,” he explained.

“We genuinely thought there was room for us in the market by addressing these issues and included it in a route operated by our ‘spare’ aircraft. Our return to this market has indeed seen prices reduce and service levels improve, but not the upsurge in passenger numbers we had hoped for, meaning that the route is not sustainable at this time.”

Flights will continue to operate until the end of the month, but will be cancelled beyond that date.

Aurigny said its customer services team is now contacting affected customers in date order, asking customers: “Please bear with us.” 

Mr Darby added: “We would like to thank our regular customers who have been using this service for their loyalty and hope that despite our exit at this time the quality and price of inter-island air links will be maintained.”