Aurigny boss apologises for 'inconvenience' following recent flight delays and cancellations

Aurigny's Chief Executive, Nico Bezuidenhout, said the company had faced "a number of unforeseen technical challenges" over the last two months. Credit: ITV Channel

The boss of Guernsey's airline Aurigny has personally apologised to passengers for the inconvenience of recent delays and cancellations.

The Chief Executive of the States-owned company, Nico Bezuidenhout, said: "We've had a number of unforeseen technical challenges that has affected our passengers, services and reliability.

"I apologise to our passengers for the inconvenience they suffered. We've taken corrective measures and added additional aircraft capacity in terms of our fleet and we're ready to start the summer season."

Mr Bezuidenhout also commented on the recent news that Aurigny would be selling its 122-seater Embraer jet and replacing it by leasing two smaller planes instead.

He explained: "In reality, a jet operation is not suitable for such a short sector, the 36-minute flight to Gatwick. It is too short and damages the aircraft and impacts its reliability."

He went on to add that having the jet as part of their fleet is not "cost effective" as it is almost 10-years-old and has an expensive service due soon.

The aircraft will stop scheduled flights at the end of April but stay as a back up until the end of May.

Mr Bezuidenhout also confirmed that demand around the Easter bank holidays had been "quite robust" with around 5% more passengers booked on services compared to last year.