Contingency plan in place after flight disruption

Contingency plans have been made after technical issues with the Skybus Twin Otter aircraft caused disruption to and from Alderney on Thursday.

Aurigny said a shuttle service would be delivered between Guernsey and Alderney on Friday, where these flights would meet an extra service between Southampton and Guernsey operated by a 78-seat aircraft facilitated by Skybus.

It said areplacement Skybus Twin Otter aircraft would be flown to Guernsey on Friday evening in place for Saturday's schedule of Alderney flights to both Guernsey and Southampton as usual.

Skybus has apologised to passengers.

Jonathan Hinkles, managing director of Skybus, said: "We sincerely apologise to customers for the disruption to flights over the last 24 hours, which has arisen from a technical issue with our aircraft in Guernsey."

He added: "A specialist engineer was dispatched immediately to work with Aurigny's teams and we are now working to recover the service."

Aurigny said its ground handling and customer service teams would be on hand to help passengers and, where there was a wait in Guernsey between flights, provide refreshments.

It said passengers travelling between Alderney and Guernsey could expect to fly as booked, and those flying between Alderney and Southampton will fly by way of Guernsey.

It added a routine maintenance check was already in progress when the service disruption arose which meant it was the earliest opportunity that a replacement aircraft could be dispatched.

Aurigny said the overall the Skybus Twin Otter has been available for 99.5% of planned flights, which was higher then the 96.9% on the Dornier 228 for the same period in 2025.

It said this had been overshadowed by prolonged winter weather disruption which has been markedly worse than in previous years.

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