‘It is with regret that Aurigny has had to make these three redundancies,’ he said. They were three of a total of 79 flight crew.

‘It is, of course, no reflection on the abilities of and contributions made by the cabin crew members involved. The airline industry is going through an extremely difficult time at the moment and we could be facing an even bigger test next year as the economic turmoil continues.’

It did not help that an important part of the company’s income had run dry,’ he said.

‘One of Aurigny’s most important commercial initiatives is the leasing and chartering of its spare aircraft, with crew, to other airlines.’

That is known in industry terms as wet leasing.

‘Unfortunately, as airlines around the world have been cutting services to try to achieve profitability, the demand for wet leasing has dropped dramatically,’ he said.