Aurigny oldest established airlines in Britain after Loganair. The origin of its name lies in the cognate across Norman languages for Alderney. Aurigny Air Services was founded by Sir Derrick Bailey and started operations on 1 March 1968 after British United Airways withdrew from the Alderney to Guernsey route. It initially operated Britten-Norman Islander aircraft, developing a highly efficient network linking the Channel Islands with each other and with France and the United Kingdom. During the first year of operations the airline carried 45,000 passengers between Guernsey, Jersey and Alderney. Aurigny became the first commercial operator of the Britten-Norman Trislander in
Aurigny two-week trial in November 2013. Aurigny announced on 17 April 2014 that it would retire its five Trislanders and replace them with three second-hand Dornier Do 228s, noting that "the cost of keeping them [Trislanders] in the air is now prohibitively expensive". The programme to replace the Trislanders was expected to cost £3 million, with the airline asking the States of Guernsey for a loan in order to fund its Dornier acquisition. Aurigny's flagship Trislander aircraft nicknamed "Joey", after its registration "G-JOEY", gained great affection over time and a campaign was established to have "Joey" put on display in Guernsey