Sport is the winner as Aurigny renames final two ATRs.
15th October 2019Guernsey based airline Aurigny have found a ‘sporting’ solution following the community engagement in the recent Facebook poll to decide the registration of the last of the new ATR’s.
In September, the airline published a poll where the public were asked to vote between G-OGFC or G-GRFC as their preferred registration. The aircraft would then represent one of Aurigny’s biggest sporting clients, either the Guernsey Raiders Rugby Club or Guernsey Football Club.
When the poll closed G-OGFC was announced as the winner having topped the poll and while there was a bit of controversy over some of the voter profiles, Aurigny was confident in that decision, noting at the time that the final spike in votes would not have changed the end result.
However, given the passion demonstrated during and after the poll, Aurigny have come up with a solution to level the playing field. Its PR Manager, Jess Mauger, said: “We were discussing the registrations in a meeting and all wondered if it was too late to amend the previously registered G-OFOG to represent the Raiders. When we found out this was possible, we agreed with the rugby team their preferred registration as Aurigny prefer not to have two aircraft ending in the same letters. It is great that sport is ultimately the winner and I am looking forward to working with both teams when their respective aircraft arrive.”
Therefore, the penultimate aircraft will be named G-OGFC (Go GFC) in honour of the local football team with a great community fan base who indeed travel with Aurigny on a regular basis to attend their away games and are hugely supportive of the airline.
And last but by no means least the final aircraft registration will be named G-ORAI (Go Raiders) to celebrate the popular local rugby team who also frequently travel with Aurigny for games off island and are equally supportive of Aurigny.
Director of GFC, Nic Legg, said: “We are looking forward to the arrival of the new plane. Having a plane with GFC on is another memorable moment in our short history. Thanks to Aurigny for offering the club this opportunity. We look forward to working together on this exciting initiative.”
Director of Guernsey Raiders, Chris Gnapp, said: “Guernsey Raiders have worked with Aurigny for a number of years and each year through our men’s, ladies and academy teams we take thousands of flights with them to the UK. We have built a great working relationship with Aurigny over the years and are of course delighted to have a plane registered “G-ORAI” and our logo. We would like to thank Aurigny for this fantastic initiate and look forward to working with them for a number of years to come.”
Picture: Aurigny.