Aurigny says volcanic ash cloud cost £450k

Saturday 13th November 2010, 2:29PM GMT.

Aurigny AURIGNY has defended itself after it was announced yesterday that the States-owned airline lost nearly £1.4m. this year.

The figure – more than double the predicted loss of £600,000 during 2010 – was revealed in the Budget report .

Aurigny recorded a deficit of £1.6m. in 2009 and managing director Malcolm Hart said the last couple of years had been incredibly challenging for the aviation industry.

‘We predicted that Aurigny would go through an extremely difficult few years and this has proven to be the case,’ he said.

Mr Hart said Aurigny had suffered as a result of the recession, which he blamed for the airline being unable to lease out its third aircraft.

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View more: Airline news, Aurigny news, Budget news, Recession news.

1
Big D

November 15, 2010 at 10:34 pm

Seriously, nobody has commented?! If it was another States department losing this amount every year there would be an outrage. Predicted loss of £600k, Extra loss of £450k due to the ash cloud situation, so where has the bonus £350k disappeared?! It’s our taxes paying for this loss making airline, but hey, at least you get a free cup of tea and they don’t charge for bags like other (profit making) airlines.

Ridiculous, and the changes need to come from the very top.

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2
TL

November 16, 2010 at 9:42 am

Big D – from the discussions regarding the aborted sale of Aurigny to Blue Islands, it is clear that a sizeable body of the island population are quite happy to subsidise a loss-making airline, due to perceptions about how best to secure the air links.

Call it progressive public transport – loss making so that the higher tax payers subsidise the lower tax payers and ensure that everyone can travel off island once in a while.

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