Aurigny airline confirms short term route from Cornwall to London

Aurigny said the service was operated as a Passenger Service Obligation (PSO) to “provide vital air connectivity for a remote community.”

The Newquay to London route was suspended last month after the previous operators, Eastern Airways, announced it was on the brink of entering administration.

Aurigny added it was providing ground handling services, such as baggage handling and fuelling services, under commercial terms at London Gatwick.

This was in line with its handling on Eastern Airways operations at London Gatwick on the same route over the last three years and would use the same resources.

The airline said it would not be providing any of its aircraft, pilots or engineering resources to support the operation.

The priority was to provide robust and resilient service on the existing network and flights recently introduced between Guernsey and Jersey, as well as between Guernsey and Southampton, it said.

Aurigny chairman, Kevin George, said: “The aircraft is …chartered in from from an airline called Ascend Airways to operate the route, we’re assisting Skybus with that in terms of operating license but it’s Ascend’s crew.”

He added if Skybus was successful in getting the long term PSO for the Newquay to Gatwick route Aurigny would lease in an aircraft “but a dedicated aircraft, it will have no impact at all upon Aurigny’s services to and from the Island.

“It financially assists Aurigny and probably most importantly it adds some scale so it would be another aircraft that’s within the Aurigny fold and by building that scale then you become more resilient and economically more efficient.”