Budget airline easyJet are set to cancel further flights over the summer.
This comes as hundreds of flights from the airline have been scrapped over the last couple of months due a range of reasons.
Back in May, flights were axed last minute, due to I.T issues, according to the airline and hundreds of domestic and European flights have been cancelled due to a shortage staff.
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Speaking about its staffing issues, Johan Lundgren, easyJet Chief Executive told the Independent: “We have had to turn down a huge number of EU nationals because of Brexit.”
Now, in another update, easyJet have said that they will have to cull hundreds of more flights over the summer holidays as it struggles to keep up with the promised summer schedule.
Earlier the airline said it planned on running 97 per cent of its pre-pandemic schedule, whereas now it is reported easyJet will run 90 per cent of flights.
Flights to and from Edinburgh Airport and Gatwick Airport have been hit with the previous cancellations, with some flights being axed last minute.
On Monday June 20, the 10.20am flight from Edinburgh to Stansted was cancelled, as was the 1.45pm Stansted to Edinburgh flight.
The airline said: “Demand for travel has returned with April and May passengers seven times the same months last year.
“Given the unprecedented ramp up, the aviation industry across Europe is experiencing operational issues with root causes similar to the post-Covid supply chain issues being seen in many other parts of the economy.
“The challenges include air traffic control delays and staff shortages in ground handling and at airports, resulting in increased aircraft turnaround times and delayed departures which have a knock-on effect resulting in flight cancellations.
“A very tight labour market for the whole ecosystem including crew, compounded by increased ID check times, has reduced planned resilience further.
“This is reflected in the flight caps announced recently at two of our biggest airports, London Gatwick and Amsterdam.
“In response to these caps and in order to build additional resilience, easyJet is proactively consolidating a number of flights across affected airports.
“This provides customers with advance notice and the potential to rebook onto alternative flights. Given easyJet’s high frequency network, we expect to be able to rebook the majority of customers on alternative flights, with many being on the same day as originally booked for.”
Johan Lundgren, easyJet Chief Executive said: “Delivering a safe and reliable operation for our customers in this challenging environment is easyJet’s highest priority and we are sorry that for some customers we have not been able to deliver the service they have come to expect from us.
“While in recent weeks the action we have taken to build in further resilience has seen us continue to operate up to 1700 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.”
