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.”
