After weeks of last-minute cancellations to and from London Gatwick airport, easyJet has pre-emptively axed 1,700 further departures over the summer.
Britain’s biggest budget airline has taken the drastic action in a bid to get its schedule back on track and to reduce the number of flights that get cancelled while passengers are waiting at the gate.
Most of the notifications, affecting 180,000 passengers, went out over the weekend of 8–9 July. Over the same weekend, easyJet once again grounded dozens of Gatwick flights at short notice.
The aim of the schedule cull – which amounts to around 24 flights per day – is to increase resilience. The airline blames severe air-traffic control (ATC) congestion across Europe for its problems.
Most passengers have been notified and rebooked on other easyJet flights, but around 9,000 passengers may have to find seats on other airlines.
These are the key questions – and answers.
What’s the problem?
As easyJet passengers hoping to fly from Gatwick to Belfast and from Budapest to the Sussex airport found out late on Sunday night, the airline has been struggling to maintaining the promised schedule at its biggest base this summer. Both flights were cancelled while passengers were waiting “airside”.
Typically delays build up during the day, with flight crew eventually going “out of hours” and being legally unable to complete the trip. That sequence of events has been repeated hundreds of times in the past few weeks on easyJet flights to and from Gatwick.
The carrier squarely blames “unprecedented” air traffic control delays, which it says are three times longer than before the pandemic.
As The Independent has reported, the pan-European air traffic management body, Eurocontrol, is warning of high overload at a number of area control centres during the peak summer months.
The challenges are intensified by the war in Ukraine, which has closed a large amount of airspace in eastern Europe and increased pressure on routes across the Balkans, affecting flights to popular airports in Greece and Turkey.
To complicate an already difficult picture, some air traffic control strikes are threatened.
In addition, Gatwick is the busiest single-runway airport in the world. With little slack in the system, arrival and departure delays can swiftly increase.
Do other airlines at Gatwick have the same issue?
No. Over the past weekend, for example, easyJet made about five times more cancellations than all other carrier at Gatwick put together. The low-cost airline points out that, with around half the slots at the Sussex airport, it is far more susceptible to disruption than other carriers.
The same pattern applies to British Airways at Heathrow when factors such as bad weather intervene and cause problems at what is the world’s busiest two-runway airport.
But critics point to a lack of resilience. On Monday 10 July, for example, easyJet had cancelled 30 flights to and from Gatwick by 7am – before delays had begun to build up. They also point to the cancellation rate on Ryanair and Jet2 to and from London Stansted, another busy airport: it is normally zero, except when air traffic controllers are on strike.
So how is easyJet addressing the problem?
The airline says it has made “some pre-emptive adjustments to our programme consolidating a small number of flights at Gatwick, where we have multiple daily frequencies”. The aim: “To help mitigate these external challenges on the day of travel for our customers.”
That amounts to 1,700 easyJet departures across July, August and September. That approximates to the number of flights easyJet operates across Europe on a single day.
At the time the cancellations went out, 180,000 passengers were booked on the affected easyJet flights. Of these, the airline says 95 per cent have been rebooked on alternative easyJet flights – leaving 9,000 who have not.
What are passengers’ rights?
Fortunately, the rights of the 9,000 passengers currently without a replacement flight are clear. Under European rules on air passengers’ rights, easyJet passengers whose flights are cancelled are entitled to travel on the original day of departure on any other airline that has seats available on the, at easyJet’s expense.
Passengers whose flights are grounded with less than two weeks’ notice may be entitled to cash compensation of £220 – or £350 for flights above 1,500km. The only way easyJet can decline a compensation claim is if it rebooks the passenger on a flight that arrives close to the original time.
The exact rules: if you have been told of the cancellation less than a week before departure, your alternative flight must depart no earlier than one hour ahead of the original time, and arrive less than two hours after the planned landing.
If you were told of the cancellation between one and two weeks, then the alternative flight must take off no more than two hours ahead and arrive less than four hours after the original scheduled time of arrival.
When an airline gives at least two weeks’ notice of a cancellation, it does not need to pay compensation – but remains obliged to rebook passengers on suitable alternative flights.
Affected travellers can alternatively accept a full refund – including for a return flight if only one leg is cancelled.
What does easyJet say?
A spokesperson for the airline said: “We are currently operating up to around 1,800 flights and carrying around 250,000 customers per day and like all airlines, we review our flights on an ongoing basis.
“As Eurocontrol has stated, the whole industry is seeing challenging conditions this summer with more constrained air space due to the war in Ukraine resulting in unprecedented ATC [air traffic control] delays, as well as further potential ATC strike action.
“Customers whose flights are affected are being informed, with 95 per cent of customers being rebooked onto an alternative flight and all customers provided with the option to rebook or receive a refund.
“We are sorry for any inconvenience that this may have caused.”
I have not been told of a cancellation, but could it still happen?
The Independent understands that the notifications from the current cull have all gone out. The vast majority of easyJet passengers booked from Gatwck should be unaffected, and the reduction in flights is aimed at making the operation more resilient.
However, with air-traffic control delays across Europe apparently three times worse than pre-pandemic times, and some industrial action in the offing (for example this coming Saturday by Italian aviation staff), there is always a risk of more cancellations.
Also, when severe weather strikes Gatwick and Heathrow all bets are off. So, yes, there is still a risk of a short-notice cancellation, as there is with any airline at any time.
I am booked on a package holiday using easyJet flights. What are my rights?
People who have booked flights and accommodation in the same transaction have the benefit of both European air passengers’ rights rules and the Package Travel Regulations – the latter making it the responsibility of the tour operator (holiday company) to deliver the trip as booked. In many circumstances the best solution will be for the tour operator to buy you a new flight on a different airline, and the our operator should discuss options with you.
The Independent understands, though, that some online travel agents who have sold packages are insisting that the traveller should take up the issue with the airline. If that happens to you, then see if the agent has sent you an easyJet reservation code (known as a “locator”) – seven letters/numbers beginning E or K. If you have one, you should be able to log on to easyJet.com and see what the airline proposes.
I have been rebooked on a different day...
The Independent understands that about 10 per cent of affected passengers, ie around 18,000, have been moved to a different day. If easyJet has no availability on the day the traveller was originally booked to fly, it must – if the passenger asks – buy them a ticket on any other airline that has space available. The UK Civil Aviation Authority insists on this.
If the traveller chooses to accept the change, then under European air passengers’ rights rules easyJet must also pay for any additional accommodation costs as well as meals taken while waiting to depart.
What do travel industry leaders say?
Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive, Advantage Travel Partnership, told The Independent: “This is really disappointing at a time when summer holidays are so precious for so many.
“As always, if you book through a reputable travel agent you will have access to expertise that will help you rebook any flight element of a package that has been that has been cancelled.”
The aviation veteran Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said: “Just when you thought you had secured a flight to your summer holiday paradise, it gets changed and causes more inconvenience and stress.
“Airlines have to get better at planning and delivering, not letting down customers at short notice.”
Didn’t easyJet do the same last year?
Yes, the airline made thousands of Gatwick cancellations between June and September 2022 as the aviation industry struggled to resume at scale after the pandemic.
British Airways cancelled even more flights to and from London Heathrow, its main base. Both airlines were allowed to keep their precious arrival and departure slots despite the cancellations, but that concession may not be repeated.
What will this do to fares this summer?
By taking a large chunk of seats (over 300,000) out of the market over peak season, easyJet has significantly cut supply. With no sign of demand diminishing, fares will only increase – to the benefit of all competing airlines, including easyJet.
Any other problems?
Yes: scammers setting up imposter Twitter accounts. With so many passengers seeking to contact easyJet on social media, villains are harvesting tweets and replying from lookalike accounts. They reply and demand your details. The only legitimate account is @easyJet.
