Allez Ski has thanked Loganair for its “proactive” and “efficient” help that meant stranded skiers were able to get home to Guernsey after fog caused chaos for travellers over the weekend.
The charter flight bringing home skiers from Grenoble on Saturday was diverted back to Jersey after its landing in Guernsey was abandoned due to the thick fog.
Within minutes of the aircraft being sent back to Jersey – where it had already offloaded passengers, Allez Ski said its staff had activated a contingency plan that would ultimately bring Guernsey families home just a day later than planned.
The contingency plan involved chartering a Loganair plane and crew to operate an inter-island flight – just weeks after the airline was told it couldn’t have a licence to offer scheduled flights between Guernsey and Jersey.
“We would not have been able to get all of our clients back to Guernsey from Jersey on the Sunday without the help of Loganair and a special charter flight that was quickly organised,” explained Darren Duquemin of Allez Ski.
“The team at Loganair were extremely proactive, very keen to help and incredibly efficient. They understood the urgency and stepped up for the Channel Islands community.”
Mr Duquemin confirmed that all of the Guernsey-based passengers were put up in hotels overnight in Jersey before returning home on Sunday via the dedicated Loganair charter.
Allez Ski has operated ski holidays from the Channel Islands since 2008.
On this occasion, the Allez Ski charter flight from Grenoble to Guernsey and Jersey was full of families heading home after a half term week skiing in the Alps.
When the flights had originally been scheduled, the service was meant to be operated by Blue Islands. After the airline went bust, Allez Ski arranged a replacement charter with Smartwings, operating a Boeing 737 service from Guernsey to Grenoble, collecting Jersey passengers en route.
Allez Ski said despite the return disruption, it “successfully delivered its February half-term ski programme, ensuring all clients travelled to and from the French Alps”.
The outbound flights operated smoothly, allowing families to enjoy their half-term break in the Alps as planned, before fog affected their returns.
Mr Duquemin added: “It was certainly a challenging few days and months operationally, but our priority throughout was clear — to look after our clients and ensure they returned home safely. We are extremely grateful to our airline partners, particularly Loganair, and to our clients for their patience and understanding.”
A large number of flights were affected by fog over the weekend, affecting the travel plans of hundreds of people.
18 inbound flights and 10 outbound flights were cancelled or diverted elsewhere on Saturday, with another 12 in and 10 outbound flights affected on Sunday.
Of the flights that did land manage to land in or take off from Guernsey over the weekend, some passengers experienced long delays.
Many people remain delayed today, with some returning residents telling Express they can’t get on an Aurigny flight home until at least Wednesday night, having originally been booked to fly home on Sunday.
Other passengers have travelled to Poole to catch a ferry.
Aurigny said the cancellation of many of its services were “unavoidable” due to the “extremely challenging circumstances, compounded by high demand marking the end of the school half-term holidays”.
“However, Aurigny’s staff did their utmost to provide customers with updated information and arrange alternative travel solutions wherever possible,” said the airline.
“This included the organisation of travel by ship for nearly 450 passengers from Poole to Guernsey in place of flights from London Gatwick and London City. Titan Airways’ Airbus 320 was deployed to bring back all customers stranded in Grenoble. Bus services were laid on for customers to enable travel by air to London and then on to Manchester, their planned destination.
“Aurigny fully respected its mission as the airline for the people of Guernsey and for getting people home however challenging the circumstances.”