Speaking in the States’ Assembly on Wednesday, Deputy Roffey added that certain replacement parts were not held in stock by Aurigny due to a $50,000 cost and a “history of good reliability” with those parts.
Responding to the Alderney Representative Alex Snowdon’s Rule 11 questions on the issue, Deputy Roffey said “under its States’ contact, Aurigny is required to provide two Dornier aircraft dedicate to the Alderney services. One has been undergoing its mandatory annual maintenance which was scheduled for completion by the end of March.
“However, the maintenance identified a small number of parts that needed replacement.”
He added that the second Dornier aircraft “developed technical problems with its essential avionics systems just before Easter,” representing the first failure of that part in five years.
“A replacement had to be ordered. Shipping was delayed by the holiday weekend. After consultation with [the manufacturer] Aurigny was able to swich this part from the 1st to the 2nd aircraft as a temporary fix. However, that required software changes to make it compatible and required test flights,” said Deputy Roffey.
Aurigny is still awaiting replacement parts for the first aircraft, and it is expected to re-enter service at the end of this month.
Pictured: Under the public service obligation, only two Dornier aircraft are required to be available for Alderney’s air services.
Mr Snowdon asked Deputy Roffey if he thought the two-plane model was “broken” since Alderney can be left in a vulnerable position.
Deputy Roffey repeatedly referred to the public service obligation between Aurigny and Alderney, saying the provision of two aircraft is “embedded in the PSO” which is negotiated by the Policy & Resources Committee. This creates a “difficult position” for the STSB.
He said the timing of routine aircraft maintenance “was absolutely scheduled to avoid busy periods, and it was only the absolute perfect storm of events that the part had to be manufactured and is still being manufactured.
“There is a standing arrangement between Aurigny and another airline to try and provide resilience between them. Really unfortunately, that other airline also had a technical issue over the same period and therefore was not willing to release one of their aircraft during a busy period.
“Aurigny did not plan for the aircraft to be out of service during the Easter holidays… it was compounded by the very limited availability of alternative air or boat options despite extensive searches.”
Deputy Roffey said Aurigny contacted two ferry operators, but each of their boats were “in dry-dock”.
He did however credit the Guernsey and Alderney operations teams in organising “27 extra sailings in either direction, as well as using the Salty Blonde’s sailings over the Easter weekend, and operating additional flights between Southampton and Guernsey.
“That ensured over 90% of passengers were eventually able to get to their destinations,” he said.
Pictured: Alderney’s out-of-date runway was brought up several times by Deputy Roffey as he responded to Mr Snowdon’s questions.
Deputy Roffey referred multiple times to the proposals to extend Alderney’s runway, which could remediate vulnerability concerns.
“In the medium term, the best option is to make sure there are a wider range of aircraft to land in Alderney, that is the best way to get resilience into the system,” he said.
“Hopefully if P&R agree, which I have no reason to believe they won’t, they will include the option for an extension so we can see exactly what the additional costs will be and calculate if the savings, which we project, will be there when the firm numbers come back.”
Deputy Roffey said Aurigny has started its own review to learn from the “sorry experience” to avoid the risks in the future. This includes working with the parts manufacturer and the inter-changeability of parts between the two Dornier aircraft.
The next update will come at a routine shareholder meeting between the STSB and Aurigny “in the middle of next month”.
Deputy Roffey assured Mr Snowdon that the States of Alderney would be a part of the review into the disruption.
