Aurigny's Final New Aircraft, G-ORAI Arrives in Guernsey
14th January 2020
The third and final new ATR to join Aurigny’s fleet arrived in the island this weekend. The aircraft sports the registration G-ORAI in honour of the islands local rugby team who have a men’s team, ladies’ squad and an academy and are regular travellers with Aurigny to their away matches, as well as bringing their opponents to Guernsey.
G-ORAI, touched down in Guernsey on Friday 10th January at 18.00 and will go into service later this week.
ATR Captain for Aurigny, Fiona Power, says the aircraft will be special for her:
“I have been with Aurigny for two years and love flying the ATR aircraft especially our new ones. As a player for Guernsey Raiders ladies I am particularly excited about this plane. To be able to fly on an aircraft named after our rugby team is going to be really special but to Captain the aircraft honouring the team I play for will be a real privilege.”
Chris Gnapp, Director of Guernsey Raiders said:
“We are delighted to see the new aircraft G-ORAI come into service. Through our men’s, ladies and academy sides we have taken thousands of flights with Aurigny and have built up a fantastic relationship with them over the years. Now having a plane named after the Raiders further cements that relationship and we’d like to thanks all involved at Aurigny for making that happen. The men’s side look forward to using it for the first time on Saturday for their away game against Tunbridge Wells.”
In the near future, the aircraft will have a decal of the Raiders logo near the registration to further endorse the identity of the Raiders aircraft.
The latest arrival means the ATR fleet will once again change. G-COBO, one of the older ATR 72-500s, has almost finished its pre-sale check and is due to fly to Toulouse next week to be painted white. This will mean it will shortly no longer carry any Aurigny branding ahead of it being sold to ATR.
Later this week G-VZON is due to fly down to Grand Canaria and have its pre-sale check, prior to its sale to ATR.
G-HUET is due to finish commercial flying for Aurigny at the end of February before it goes for its base check ahead of its return to the leasing company.
Finally, G-LERE will remain with the fleet until its lease ends in November 2021.
Picture: Aurigny