Aurigny Air Services-2
 

New Fare Structure Announced Today
Indeed, as predicted. The following has been sent out today in emails:-

New fare structure announced today
More choice, more lower priced flights and hand baggage only fares.

We are pleased to announce important changes to our fare structure, in a move that will give customers the ability to buy tickets which better fit their needs. There will be the chance to save with a new lower, hand baggage only fare, and two other fares which include extras to give passengers more flexibility and peace of mind.



It is the latest change to be announced by the Board of Aurigny, following the publication of the States of Guernsey’s Strategic Review, as we look to improve both customer experience, whilst improving overall financial performance, and contribution to the economy.



The new fares will come into effect in October 2017 and the public will be notified one week prior to the changes coming in. The new fare structure is designed to make Aurigny more competitive and comparable with other airlines, and allow all customers to better tailor their journey to meet their individual needs.



There will be three simple choices to give customers more control and encourage more travel:


LIGHT

Hand baggage-only fare for the traveller who wants the lowest price.



SMART

For the traveller who wants more flexibility. Customers can travel with one hold luggage bag up to 23kg, pick their own seats (excluding extra legroom), and avoid the £40 charge for changing flights (any difference in the fare will still apply).




FLEXI

For maximum flexibility in your travel plans. Customers have double the baggage allowance (up to 46kg), full flexibility to change flights without paying any extra, and the ability to choose any of the seats on the aircraft, including extra leg room. The FLEXI fare is fully refundable up to two hours before departure.




The new system also allows passengers to add a range of extras to their booking, right up until check-in. Such as adding baggage, choosing their seat, or adding other travel essentials like car hire and hotel bookings. The changes are not being introduced on the direct flights to and from Alderney, Southampton, Dinard or Grenoble.



On 20 September we say goodbye to our old website and welcome the new and improved site. Thank you to everyone who has provided feedback on the site during the testing phase, this has helped us to better improve the site ready for launch.

Well, passengers will undoubtedly be equally pleased. Not.

Surely some will !

Seems to me they are under they are under the impression their fares are on a par with budget low frills airlines, companies who are able to justify charging for extras on top of their minimum basic pricing.

Next time you hear an airline CEO or spokesperso bragging about customer-friendly improvements of its fares, make sure you walk around him/her and check his/her back:

http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pu...swear_4721.png

In fairness I'd hate to be Aurigny, it's as if they're being stalked by some of the members of this forurm, airport arrival/departure boards, Guernsey Airport CCTV etc.

They're not suggesting that they're trying to compete with the LoCo's but just offering their bread & butter punters options to save money but, just out of curiosity, how would a full load of passengers all with 46kg of hold baggage figure on a Do228?

The new fares structure does not apply to routes operated by the 228 ie GCIACI ACISOU and GCIDNR it says so the problem won't arise

So you seriously believe that Aurigny are simply introducing a lower priced fare without frills whereas the frills inclusive fare remain unchanged? If they do so, it would really be a first...

all that choice on a GCI flight??!! OH please do you really need extra legroom or a seat near the door to leg it quick? Aurigny must be really desperate and insulting to their core pax base to think their lot will be swayed by this nonsense - the only way is down

Rog747
 

The Aurigny offering is pretty much the same as flybe, BA and easyjet offer on their services to the Channel Islands. If, as you imply, people won't want to pay for bags and seats allocations they won't have to, that's the whole point. Today they all pay whether they want them or not.

So the new fare without bags/seats then is cheaper than the currently cheapest fare including bags/seats and available for the same amount of seats?

At the moment the cheapest fare from Guernsey to East Midlands is around £80, they are suggesting that when the new structure comes in that will be £20 less.

I don't think £60 is a super-duper low price as you would expect to see touted by a budget no frills operator. And the naturally suspicious among us might wonder how long it will take for the new lower price to creep back up to £80.....

Fair comments, but the essential point is that AUR does not have to compete with any "budget , no frills , operator".

You seriously don't think £60 is as cheap as chips to fly from East Midlands to Guernsey?!?

I agree with you, £60 IS an attractive fare to anywhere from Guernsey (especially Jersey!). But, it is nowhere near some of the fares which are available on a low fare carrier e.g. EZY. You can do Jersey to Gatwick for less than £10 on occasion. You can't get anywhere near that with AUR out of Guernsey.

Have the laws of supply and demand changed when I wasn't looking? :ok:

At the moment the cheapest fare from Guernsey to East Midlands is around £80
 

Have you ever actually looked for the cheapest fares, or do you just make it up?

Use the low fare finder on the new Aurigny web site and you'll find that there are no flights to East Midlands in November priced at more than £49.99 and the vast majority are £39.99 and that's before the new fares come in to play. Its pretty much like that for the whole of the winter season. They are higher in the other direction where there is APD and higher airport charges, but the majority are £49.99 with the highest in November being £59.99.

Nowhere near £80 being the cheapest.

https://www.aurignybeta.com/lowest-f...CI/EMA#2017-11

I stand corrected, thank you.

£40 is a good price, especially if the new fare structure really does knock half of that off!

£20 is much more like the level of pricing where I am happy to pay for seating, bags, etc.

I thought that we were referring to return fares between Guernsey & East Midlands. So, my comments referred to that. In that regard, £60 is way less than AUR's return fares, from what I can see from your figures.My point is that a LCC would offer fares much lower than AUR's - at least some of the time. But, AUR does not have to compete against any LCCs. Not that any LCC would find EMA-GCI so attractive that it would want to operate the route !

Not sure what point you are trying to make? AUR are serving a small market - comparing them to EZY is like comparing a village shop to Tesco's

I am merely trying to point out that, despite the new policy, AUR's fares are nowhere near the lower level (which are available elsewhere) that they might be if they had to face competition. AUR serve a small market, & that market wants three things; reliable services, a wider range of destinations & lower fares . It will never get everything that it wants - unless there is competition it will not get appreciably lower fares. But, if it gets competition it will lose reliability & security of routes; & probably lose its state owned airline. It will probably never get a much wider range of destinations unless the States keeps subsidizing AUR. And, if it were to face LCC competition, the need for increased subsidies would be re-emphasized. I can live with that realization, but I am not sure that the Guernsey resident fully appreciates the fact that their national airline cannot provide the low fares that he wants together with meeting what is, essentially, a public service obligation.

G-COBO
 

I do sometimes feel sorry for Aurigny. The handlers at Manchester pushed back G-COBO into a catering truck. This has resulted in inevitable knock-on delays, which are no doubt very annoying for those affected. Aurigny posted the event on facebook with estimated times for the affected flights and someone waiting at EMA moans that they haven't been told what is happening and only get 1 hour free wifi. As far as I can see, the new ETD is on the EMA departure board. How much detail do people expect?


https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...5d&oe=5A4FC3B3

Fair points. I share your sentiments.
Many who comment here are not "knocking" Aurigny but simply stating facts. In this case surely the airline cannot be blamed in the slightest. Where was the person behind the a/c checking that pushback was safe, as at GCI?

Yes, they have recently had more than their fair share of bad luck. And, they are on a hiding to nothing with their obligations & their fares & the expectations of some of the Guernsey public. But, still they are loss making & subsidized - & likely to remain so ad infinitum. The fares referred to earlier are a genuine attempt to provide lower fares but cannot be equated to the ones available on a LCC. In that respect, they are lucky that a LCC is unlikely to offer them any competition. I wish them well, but cannot fail to notice the realities of their operation.

I don't suppose that the public perception of Aurigny is helped by the headline in the Manchester Evening News that reads "Plane crashes into catering truck at Manchester Airport leaving wing 'embedded' in vehicle". Still, it probably attracts more readers than "Tug driver pushes aircraft into improperly parked catering truck" or something similar (I don't know the details of the event).

At least no major damage seems to have been done. G-COBO is on its way back to GCI now.

Aurigny to work with EasyJet..

Aurigny Enters Partnership With EasyJet - Island FM


The States of Guernsey owned airline says working with ‘Europe’s leading airline easyJet’ will enable Aurigny to attract ‘more inward visitors to the islands by making Guernsey a destination option for the millions of UK and European customers using the easyJet website’.
In a statement, Aurigny says the partnership will launch soon.
Stand-alone tickets on the Aurigny network (with no easyJet route connection) will go on sale by the end of the year at easyJet.com. For islanders it will enable easy luggage transfers, and worry-free, guaranteed connections with easyJet flights at Gatwick. Should a passenger miss a connecting flight they will be transferred to the next available flight. Aurigny has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to be part of Worldwide by easyJet, which is the first global airline connections service of its kind. Aurigny is among the latest airlines to join the product which is available from the easyJet website. In the coming few weeks, Aurigny and easyJet will work on the implementation.
Further details, including a launch date, will be announced in due course. This is the latest announcement to be made by Aurigny since the publication of the recommendations from the States’ Strategic Review, which asked the airline to explore potential partnerships with other carriers.
Aurigny Commercial Director Malcolm Coupar has said:
“We are really excited to be involved in this new initiative with Gatwick’s biggest carrier easyJet. It is great news for people in Guernsey and will help reduce their worries about missing connecting flights. It will also help to promote Guernsey as a holiday and short breaks destination to the millions of visitors to the easyJet site, and make it easier to book a ticket to Guernsey from the wide range of places served by easyJet from Gatwick.”
Peter Duffy, Chief Commercial Office for easyJet, has said:
“The response to Worldwide by easyJet has been fantastic and we are excited to be meeting more latent customer demand through today’s new partnerships. The take up from customers in Jersey gives us confidence that we will see similar demand from Guernsey following our partnership with Aurigny. Partnering with Neos, La Compagnie and Corsair further extends the range of destinations we can serve our European customers and we will be working with our partners to roll-out the self-connect product to relevant airports.”

This is, apparently, a good development - but won't , necessarily, translate into lower fares on the AUR network. Will it ?

No. The advantage will be for folk making connecting flights and for those affected by delays. Someone who travels with AUR and misses their EZY flight (and has booked in this way) will be put on the next available.

EZY will still be EZY just as AUR will still be AUR. The earlier comparison between the village shop and Tesco is a good one. Look at aircraft utilization. One ATR72 can operate four returns in a day from GCI - to Manchester, Bristol, Stansted, and Manchester. However AUR often split the operation with one ATR doing Manchester and Bristol, with the other doing Stansted and Manchester. An ATR can thus be sitting on the tarmac at GCI for hours on end. Not economic sense perhaps, but at least back-up is there in case of another aircraft being u/s or fog descending.

Put together the EMB195, three ATR72s and one ATR42: you have 5 aircraft. One is regularly acting as a spare out of the five. EZY have a fleet of 279 Airbuses. If 20% were spare every day there would be about 55 Airbuses not flying! No, you can't compare the two outfits; just as chalk and cheese and Tesco and the village shop are different. It's unfair for anyone to try and put AUR in the low-cost league. But at least there is local commitment and they make a genuine attempt to get their pax home to Guernsey at the end of every day.

EMA-GCI G-LERE
 

The EMA-GCI flight diverted to SOU this afternoon. Any ideas as to why? It was on the ground for less than an hour, so probably not too serious from the a/c point of view.

LERE diversion
 

GEP today has mention of diversion due to a medical emergency on board. Patient received first aid from crew and passenger (a guernsey nurse). Patient said to be making a good recovery.

G-COBO
 

G-COBO has just returned to GCI on the GCI-BRS flight. Followed by fire engines / blue flashing lights to the terminal. The web cams have frozen now so can't see what is going on.

Update - according to Aurigny's facebook page:

UNUSUAL WEATHER

Jersey MET Office has advised us that there have been unusual atmospheric conditions, as can be seen in the colour of the sky and sun. This phenomenon has been attributed to wildfires in Portugal and Spain, with smoke particles being carried over by ex-hurricane Ophelia.
We understand that multiple airlines have reported a smoky smell being experienced whilst flying through the area.
Our Bristol flight GR642, did return to Guernsey as a precaution, but this was before we received this information. The aircraft has been fully checked by engineers and will return to service.

We apologies to all passenger affected by the disruption.

The blue lights are occulting, not flashing! ... And there were numerous other diversions by numerous operators during the day due to the atmospheric conditions!

What was the issue with G-SAYE? Is it just a hangar queen?
Is G-OAUR still with Aurigny?

What makes you think that G-OAUR is no longer with Aurigny? Last weeks flights listed below:

20 Oct Alderney (ACI) Guernsey (GCI) GR233
20 Oct Guernsey (GCI) Alderney (ACI) GR230
20 Oct Alderney (ACI) Guernsey (GCI) GR217
20 Oct Southampton (SOU) Alderney (ACI) GR502
20 Oct Alderney (ACI) Southampton (SOU) GR501
20 Oct Guernsey (GCI) Alderney (ACI) -
19 Oct Alderney (ACI) Guernsey (GCI) GR281
19 Oct Southampton (SOU) Alderney (ACI) GR564
19 Oct Alderney (ACI) Southampton (SOU) -
19 Oct Alderney (ACI) Southampton (SOU) GR563
19 Oct Guernsey (GCI) Alderney (ACI) GR262
19 Oct Alderney (ACI) Guernsey (GCI) -
19 Oct Guernsey (GCI) Alderney (ACI) -
19 Oct Alderney (ACI) Guernsey (GCI) -
19 Oct Guernsey (GCI) Alderney (ACI) -
18 Oct Alderney (ACI) -
18 Oct Southampton (SOU) Alderney (ACI) -
18 Oct Alderney (ACI) Southampton (SOU) -
18 Oct Guernsey (GCI) - -
18 Oct Dinard (DNR) Guernsey (GCI) -
18 Oct Guernsey (GCI) Dinard (DNR) -
18 Oct Alderney (ACI) Guernsey (GCI) -
18 Oct Southampton (SOU) Alderney (ACI) GR502
18 Oct Alderney (ACI) Southampton (SOU) GR501
18 Oct Guernsey (GCI) Alderney (ACI) -
17 Oct Alderney (ACI) Guernsey (GCI) -
17 Oct Southampton (SOU) Alderney (ACI) GR564
17 Oct Alderney (ACI) Southampton (SOU) GR563
17 Oct Guernsey (GCI) - -
17 Oct Alderney (ACI) Guernsey (GCI) -
17 Oct Alderney (ACI) Guernsey (GCI) GR217
17 Oct Southampton (SOU) Alderney (ACI) GR502
17 Oct Alderney (ACI) Southampton (SOU) GR501
17 Oct Guernsey (GCI) Alderney (ACI) -
16 Oct Alderney (ACI) Guernsey (GCI) GR281
16 Oct Alderney (ACI) Southampton (SOU) -
16 Oct Guernsey (GCI) Alderney (ACI) -
16 Oct Dinard (DNR) Guernsey (GCI) -
16 Oct Guernsey (GCI) Dinard (DNR) -
16 Oct Alderney (ACI) Guernsey (GCI) GR217
16 Oct Southampton (SOU) Alderney (ACI) GR502
16 Oct Alderney (ACI) Southampton (SOU) GR501
16 Oct Guernsey (GCI) Alderney (ACI) GR202

Ok thanks, my source was wrong. Currently looking at G-OAUR and what I assume is G-SAYE in the Anglo Normandy hangar. Same question, does G-SAYE fly then? G-OMAF is still flying with Aurigny to cover?

GOMAF has been supplied to Aurigny by manufacturer as cover for the late delivery of the new aircraft, now I believe due for delivery second quarter next year. LGIS has been flying PAX over the past few days. Not sure what the position with SAYE is.

G-SAYE was in service a little over a week ago. I suspect that they regard this somewhat as a spare a/c as it has a lower MTOW than the other a/c (they aren't all of the same type) and as such has reduced capacity.

Correct. After a period of inactivity G-SAYE took to the air for the second half of August while G-LGIS was not flying. When G-LGIS returned to service on 19th September, G-SAYE became less regular apart from 3 successive days in late September when G-OMAF was not flying.
G-SAYE has only flown on four days in October, the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 10th. If I recall correctly the 10th was for a medevac only.

G-HUET - Loganair Lease
Positioned GCI-DND yesterday prior to a 2 week lease to operate for Loganair between Dundee and Stansted.

ACI - SOU
 

There is a rumour been posted on the Joey and Friends facebook page that Aurigny may be dropping the ACI-SOU service. I wonder if there is any truth in it.