Budget airline easyJet has axed all flights from UK airports to Hurghada in Egypt until the end of July. Bosses blamed “industry-wide operational issues” for the decision and apologised to thousands of inconvenienced passengers.
The airline has squeezed its schedule in recent weeks because of issues including staff shortages but the decision to cancel flights and holidays to the popular Red Sea resort will be a blow for many customers owing to a shortage of alternative airlines.
A spokesperson for easyJet said: “There are industry-wide operational issues that are impacting airlines at the moment, which means we have made a number of pre-emptive cancellations. This includes all flights to Hurghada from the UK for the remainder of June and July. We are very sorry for the inconvenience this will cause.
“We are informing customers in advance to minimise the impact on their plans and providing the option to rebook before travelling or receive a voucher or a refund.”
The airline's move decision follows weeks of aviation disruption due to staff shortages. Chief operating officer Sophie Deckers told the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee that it is taking four weeks longer than normal for new cabin crew recruits to receive their security passes.
She said: “It’s taking around 14 weeks now to get crew ID passes. It was around 10 weeks pre-pandemic in a normal year.”
Ms Deckers said the delay is being caused by the requirement for individuals to obtain references for all the jobs they have done in the past five years.
“In many cases, people have had 10 jobs in the last couple of years. Maybe some of them were only for a couple of weeks, but we’re required to get a reference from each of those, so that’s what’s taking the length of time.
“We have today 142 crew ready and trained to go online, that don’t have their ID passes. So we have planned for this (increase in demand for travel) and we’ve planned for the ramp up, the ID processing I think has caught us by surprise and it’s taken longer than we had ever planned or anticipated.”
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