EasyJet is scrapping thousands of summer flights claiming it is trying to avoid even more last-minute cancellations. The airline has said that it does not yet know which flights will be impacted - meaning holiday plans for travellers have been plunged into uncertainly.
The airline said the measure is also in response to caps introduced by Gatwick and Amsterdam Schiphol airports. The aviation sector across Europe is experiencing “operational issues” including air traffic control delays, staff shortages in ground handling and at airports, and increased times for identity checks of new recruits, easyJet said.
The airline explained it is “proactively consolidating a number of flights” at airports affected by “operational issues”, such as London Gatwick and Amsterdam’s Schiphol. The airline has cancelled thousands of flights in recent months, particularly during school holidays at Easter and the half-term period which coincided with the Jubilee bank holiday weekend. Chief executive Johan Lundgren told reporters “I can’t tell you how many flights will be impacted” as “we need to work this through”.
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He added: “It would be misleading for me to give any numbers today because we simply don’t know.”
Mr Lundgren said easyJet had planned to operate around 160,000 flights between July and September, before the cancellations being made. In May, the carrier expected its capacity to be at around 97% of 2019 levels over that three-month period, but this has been reduced to 90%.
Mr Lundgren said: “The actions we’re taking, we do need to make sure that we can continue to operate a stable programme for the remainder of the summer. The overwhelming vast majority of people would not be affected by what we are announcing today. We believe it’s the right measure to take.”
Easyjet stated there will be a “cost impact” from disruption and the amount of money it spends to operate each seat per kilometre excluding fuel will “exceed” previous guidance. It added: “We believe that these capacity/cost impacts are a one-off this summer as we would expect all parties to build greater resilience in time for 2023 peak periods.”
Mr Lundgren added: “While in recent weeks the action we have taken to build in further resilience has seen us continue to operate up to 1,700 flights and carry up to a quarter of a million customers a day, the ongoing challenging operating environment has unfortunately continued to have an impact, which has resulted in cancellations. Coupled with airport caps, we are taking pre-emptive actions to increase resilience over the balance of summer, including a range of further flight consolidations in the affected airports, giving advance notice to customers, and we expect the vast majority to be rebooked on alternative flights within 24 hours.
“We believe this is the right action for us to take so we can deliver for all of our customers over the peak summer period in this challenging environment.” The airline said it expects to be able to rebook “the majority” of passengers on to other departures, with “many being on the same day”. Chief secretary to the Treasury Simon Clarke has denied that post-Brexit immigration policy is to blame for the chaos at airports.
Asked about airline bosses’ assertions that an inflexible post-Brexit labour market is to blame, Mr Clarke told Kay Burley on Sky News: “I do not accept that this is simply a direct effect from Brexit.” He pointed to an “industry which massively slimmed down during the pandemic and now is not “resourced and manned” to meet the pent-up demand.
He added: “It’s now massively expanded its operations and the pressure is enormous, and it hasn’t managed to align the two. We will do our part as a Government to make sure our side of things is right, from issues like passports to border control. The airlines need to do their part of things”.
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