Two years after an independent review warned that Aurigny’s operations were constrained by Guernsey Airport’s opening hours, changes are finally being made.
Next summer, Guernsey Airport will stay open later on four days per week to allow flights to land until 22:30 – rather than the current 21:00 cut off.
The change was announced this week with Aurigny welcoming the move saying it “makes better use of aircraft, crews and ground services, as well as of the existing investment in Guernsey Airport’s infrastructure”.
Philip Saunders, Chief Commercial Officer of Aurigny, said the late opening hours will particularly benefit day-trippers and people travelling back from Gatwick, Manchester, or Southampton.
Flights for next summer are now available to book, with Mr Saunders saying the “schedule has been built with one clear aim: to keep Guernsey well connected at a time when regional airlines across the British Isles are cutting routes”.
“By working smarter with our aircraft, crews and airport partners, we will operate 97% of this year’s flights with one fewer aircraft,” he added.
“At the same time, we are giving customers longer day returns, and more built-in resilience to keep people on the move, even when things don’t go quite to plan. Coming off the busiest summer in our history, we are confident this programme will sustain that momentum while keeping costs under control.”
Allowing flights to land after 21:00 is something that Aurigny’s CEO has previously called for.
It was also recommended by an independent review of the airline carried out in 2024.
PA Consulting was commissioned to examine what was going wrong at Aurigny after it had been beset by a series of challenges during the previous year.
PA said at the time that Aurigny was “constrained by the Airport’s operating hours, which limits aircraft utilisation”.
Under the current rules, Guernsey Airport doesn’t allow aircraft to take off or land between 21:00 and 06:30.
Where flights are running late the airport does sometimes stay open, at a cost to Aurigny which has to cover overtime payments for airport staff and the airport fire and rescue crew.
This restriction is “unusual and could be reviewed to improve Aurigny’s on-time performance”, said the 2024 review.
Aurigny’s CEO, Nico Bezuidenhout said at the time that the airline needed “to work more collaboratively with the airport,” and that “the earlier closing time limits our ability to optimise our fleet and recover from disruptions, which can impact ticket prices and passenger experience”.
He has now welcomed the decision to allow planes to land later during the summer months saying it will help the airline address its financial problems – with its 2026 and 2027 forecast losses expected to be above £15million.
“We will continue to address our cost base and are already laying the foundations for the structural cost reductions the business needs to survive in a volatile and uncertain environment,” said Mr Bezuidenhout.
“We will work closely with the STSB to review our operating model, so Guernsey has a sustainable airline for the long term.”
