Low-cost airline easyJet plans to remove seats from some aircraft so flights can take off with fewer cabin crew. A complete row of seats will be stripped out of the back row of its Airbus A319 planes to reduce the number of passengers.
This would enable the airline to use three cabin crew on short haul flights instead of four with the number of passengers cut to a maximum 150. An easyJet spokesperson stated: "This summer we will be operating our UK A319 fleet with a maximum of 150 passengers onboard and three crew in line with CAA regulations."
It would still comply with Civil Aviation Authority regulations on the required number of cabin crew, which is based on the number of seats, rather than passengers on board. The airline added: "This is an effective way of operating our fleet while building additional resilience and flexibility into our operation this summer where we expect to be back to near 2019 levels of flying.”
The change comes after some carriers were forced to cancel swathes of flights and passengers were hit by long queues at airports because of staff shortages. TUI has also informed passengers to bring their own food and drink on board short and medium haul flights because of catering staff issues.
Meanwhile, Jet2 has resumed operating a wide-bodied Airbus on flights from Manchester to increase summer capacity. The 327-seat Airbus A330 was used on a flight to Tenerife last week and a second A330 will come into operation later this month.
Both will operate from Manchester Airport until the end of October to popular destinations including Faro in Portugal; Spanish islands of Majorca and Tenerife, along with Antalya and Dalaman in Turkey. Jet2 said the increased capacity will help meet the airline’s “huge demand” during the summer months.
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