easyJet claims ‘strong recovery’ from pandemic despite losing £3m a day over winter Business News

Britain’s biggest budget airline says it is making a “strong recovery” from the coronavirus pandemic.

But easyJet predicts a daily loss of more than £3million for the six winter months between October 2021 and March 2020.

In its latest trading statement, easyJet says winter losses were down year-on-year compared to market expectations. The airline still expects to lose around £550million over the past six months.

Chief Executive Johan Lundgren said: “We remain confident in our plans that will allow us to reach near 2019 flying levels for this summer and emerge as one of the winners of the recovery.”

The statement mentions “the continuing challenges of Covid-19”. It came on a day when the carrier canceled 32 other flights to and from its main base, Gatwick Airport, affecting around 5,000 passengers.

Many holiday flights were grounded on Wednesday, with destinations including Sardinia, Sicily, Ibiza and Venice. The airline must offer alternative departures and compensate passengers.

In the past two weeks easyJet has canceled more than 1,000 flights, despite claiming this is just 6% of its total capacity.

In March, it is operating at around 80% of the level reached in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic.

Capacity is now shared 50/50 between the UK and the EU. When UK travel restrictions were most draconian, the ratio was 30:70.

Mr Lundgren said: “easyJet’s second quarter performance was driven by improved trading following the UK government’s decision to ease testing restrictions with an additional boost from self-help measures. -support that allowed us to exceed market expectations.

“Since the removal of travel restrictions, easyJet has seen a strong recovery in trade which has continued, resulting in a positive outlook for Easter and beyond.”

Unlike its two pan-European competitors, Ryanair and Wizz Air, the airline has very little exposure to Eastern Europe. Flights to Moscow were scrapped eight years ago and easyJet has never flown to Belarus or Ukraine.

The statement read: “Due to our geographical footprint, none of our flight routes need to operate in Ukrainian, Belarusian or Russian airspace, and we are therefore not exposed to re-routing and increased fuel consumption.”