Um, Dave is Flight Operations Director, actually, not chief pilot.
When Jersey Airlines went t#ts up the States of Guernsey (or Jersey) were not interested in running an airline (States of Guernsey still aren't, really)
Aurigny haven't been run from 'the northern rock' for quite some time, about 15years I think, so plenty of time to get out of the rut.
I doubt if Malcolm (with the greates of respect) would tell the staff if he was looking at new routes, you tend to keep that sort of thing to yourself (i.e. not forewarn the opposition) until you're ready to press the 'go button'.
Apart from that, some accurate speculation.
At least AAS is actually making money
