Guernsey airline Aurigny has added two new routes to its schedule – a twice daily return to Jersey from Guernsey, and a twice daily return to Southampton from Guernsey, both commencing in May.
The airline says the return of Aurigny to Jersey and the additional services to Southampton will offer customers greater choice and an additional inter-island business connection.
The new services have been established as part of the expansion of Aurigny’s route portfolio and will be run using one of the existing leased ATR aircraft, so there will be no adverse impact on any other services.
The development of the routes will also help Aurigny meet the objective set for it by the States of Guernsey to reach a breakeven position, it says.
Mark Darby, Chief Executive, said: “We will be offering weekday morning and evening flights on both new routes, giving customers the choice of a day return to either destination and convenient times for business, medical and leisure passengers.”
The new routes create a slot in the middle of the day. Aurigny says it is looking into adding a further destination in due course, in consultation with VisitGuernsey and the Committee for Economic Development.
Full schedules will be available for booking on Friday 1 March.
The Guernsey International Business Association (GIBA) welcomed the move. GIBA Chair David Oxburgh added: “Business and leisure travellers have regularly called for more rotations, particularly to Jersey, so islanders will need to decide whether to support the new routes by travelling more; otherwise these improvements will only be for the short term.
“As well as our lifeline services to Gatwick and the new Heathrow service, we shouldn’t forget the new Blue Islands service to London Southend starting at the end of May.
"However, the ‘use it or lose it’ mantra applies to most, if not all, of the new flights announced over the last few weeks. We urge everyone to utilise these new airlinks, travel more and use Guernsey's wider range of flights, or we cannot expect this improved connectivity to be sustainable.”