TWIN OTTERS – A FEW FACTS
With the change to Twin Otters in a couple of months, Chamber put forward several questions and points last week which have been answered by Aurigny CEO Nico Bezuidenhout
Below is a synopsis of them:
– It is confirmed that when a Twin Otter goes in for a service or has a tech issue, a replacement will be brought in.
– We were advised that there will not be adequate pilots for two Twin Otters to operate at the same time.
“The PSO has always been costed on sufficient crews to operate one full line of flying, with crew provisioning for standby (planned and unplanned crew absenteeism, training etc) and Medevac callout.”
– We asked whether there will be similar disruption to the service with Medevacs.
“It does depend on the nature and urgency of the medevac. The majority of medevacs that have resulted in disruption to the scheduled services have occurred during times where one of the two Dorniers has been undergoing heavy maintenance. Given that, under the new dispensation, we will have a replacement aircraft for any aircraft undergoing heavy maintenance, these situations should be eliminated or greatly reduced.”
– Discussing the age of the Twin Otters, it was confirmed that “the aircraft come with brand new engines, new landing gears, new propellors, new electrical wiring, the majority of the external skins and flooring replaced, new avionics suite installed with the latest technology enhanced flight displays for the pilots, and new technology battery power source to replace the previous generation lead acid battery. For every practical purpose, the aircraft are new with G-NETS, the first of the two Twin Otters currently being prepared in Canada.”
– We asked whether the mid morning freighter from Guernsey could be reintroduced (this was pre-Dornier) as it was of solid benefit to island business.
We were advised that the PSO does not make provision for two simultaneous lines of flying. However, if a case could be put forward that such a reinstatement would have a positive financial contribution to the island while staying within the financial limits of the PSO, it could be worth furthering.
– Regarding pets, there is a permanent in-cabin pet cage fitted.
– We discussed payload, standard luggage allowance and hand luggage – taking into account weather conditions and the fact that there is no Jet A1 fuel available in Alderney which does reduce available passenger payload.
We were advised that
“the Dorniers cannot in most instances take off with a full payload based on the condition of the Alderney runway and absence of fuel. On average, there is currently an available payload of 17 passengers depending on operating conditions.
We expect the Twin Otter to allow similar passenger payloads. Hand luggage will continue to be allowed. In terms of standard luggage allowance, the average bag weight on Alderney routes is 9.84kgs.”
– In conclusion we raised the question about putting on extra flights when demand called for it such as during the period around Alderney Week this year when 8 Southampton and 4 Guernsey extras were put on.
We were advised that
“the key consideration however remains whether the incremental capacity can be added in a commercially viable way.”
With regard to the extras that were put on this summer it had been noted that for the Alderney economy it would have been valuable but
“the additional capacity unfortunately did not cover the direct incremental cost as the demand was directional in nature.”
Chamber hopes you found the above interesting and would ask for feedback, comments or questions to be emailed to info@alderneychamber.com
Kind regards,
Andrew Eggleston
President, Alderney Chamber of Commerce
for and on behalf of The Council |
