EasyJet Increases Flights as Demand Grows

EasyJet has increased its summer schedule due to growing demand and says it now expects to operate about 1,000 flights per day in August.

Earlier this year, the budget carrier predicted its capacity would be at 30% between July and September. They’ve now revised this to 40%, with 210 planes flying this month alone.

According to the airline, popular destinations among travellers include Faro and Nice. While city breaks such as Amsterdam and Paris continue to be an attractive draw.

EasyJet chief executive, Johan Lundgren, said the UK governments decision to reimpose a quarantine for all arrivals from Spain did not cause mass cancellations but had put them off making new bookings to the popular holiday spot. Travellers are now considering other destinations such as Greece and Croatia.

Commenting on the quarantine decision, Lundgren stated the aviation industry had not been consulted in advance and proposed regional quarantines “where spikes have occurred” as opposed to ones on a national level.  

The coronavirus pandemic caused many airlines, including easyJet, to ground their fleets for almost three months and some came under fire from the Civil Aviation Authority for not issuing refunds quickly enough. Lundgren said his airline was processing refunds within 28 days and staff were “working day and night” to reduce that further.

EasyJet operated only 709 flights in the three months to June, a sharp contrast to the 165,656 last year. This reduction caused the airline to record a £324.5m pre-tax loss in its third quarter, down from an almost £175m profit across the same period in 2019.  

These financial struggles have forced the airline to plan up to 727 pilot jobs redundancies and up to 1,200 cabin crew jobs are also at risk. Overall, easyJet expects to cut up to 4,500 positions across Europe.