Update: Blue Islands say “Aurigny statement utterly wrong”

Monday 08 December 2014

Aurigny’s decision to tell 30 staff that their jobs are at risk shows that they have chosen to abandon Jersey, according to their code-sharing partners Blue Islands.

A war of words between the two airlines has broken out over Aurigny’s decision to tell 30 ground-handling crew that their jobs are now on the line over the cancellation of Blue Islands flights to Paris, Amsterdam and Zurich last week.

Aurigny, owned by the States of Guernsey, made the announcement on Friday.

But Blue Islands have hit back – they say that Aurigny’s attempt to blame them is unfair and that their suggestion that they are going through a substantial downsize is “utterly wrong”.

A spokesman for Blue Islands said: “At their own request, Aurigny set-up as a third party handling provider to Blue Islands. Unfortunately, rather than adapting its ground handling operation to ensure it remained viable, Aurigny have chosen to abandon Jersey following the announcement of the Blue Islands codeshare with CityJet and the stopping of their own Jersey-Stansted service.

“This year Blue Islands as an independent commercial concern will fly in excess of 330,000 passengers, 65% up from 2013. We are forecasting further growth to 400,000 passengers in 2015, another 20% growth.

“Blue Islands have proven over the last four years that we are a responsive, forward thinking and ambitious airline and our loyal customers know this. As the Channel Islands only pan-island based airline, we are 100% committed to the islands.”