Britain’s biggest budget airline, easyJet, lost £3m a day between October 2021 and March 2022. But its boss believes the carrier will be ‘a winner in Europe’s post-pandemic recovery. ‘European aviation’.
EasyJet’s half-year results show an overall pre-tax loss of £545m, an improvement on the £701m lost in the corresponding six months in 2020-21.
The load factor – the proportion of occupied seats – has increased from 64 to 77%. The carrier’s chief executive, Johan Lundgren, said: “EasyJet has reduced its losses year on year, at the best end of the forecast.
“Pent-up demand and the removal of travel restrictions have enabled a strong and sustained recovery in trade, which has been further boosted by our actions.
“These include the drastic repurposing of aircraft which has seen more than 1.5 million seats moved to the best performing markets.
“As we return to a more normal summer season, we are ready to capture the increased levels of demand across our network.
“We are confident in our plans for the summer that will see us close to 2019 flight levels and we look forward to competing with our renewed strengths as a winner in the post-pandemic recovery of European aviation. “
Tickets for July, August and September are selling at levels 15% higher than in 2019, the last pre-pandemic summer.
The airline expects to operate 97% of its 2019 capacity during these summer months.
Its subsidiary, easyJet Holidays, is expected to carry more than 1.1 million customers this financial year.
But easyJet is still canceling more than 20 flights before the day due to resource concerns.
Mr. Lundgren said BBC breakfast“It’s a demanding job market. We have noted a shortage of staff at a number of airports. Not all in the UK, by the way.
“These cancellations were made at the beginning of April. The majority of customers were reassigned to flights, usually within hours.
“We carry 250,000 passengers daily, which is very much in line with the same punctuality as in 2019.”
The carrier is removing a row of seats from its small Airbus A319 to reduce seating capacity to 150, reducing the number of cabin crew from four to three.
Meanwhile, passengers are still reporting being wrongfully turned away because the airline imposed incorrect policies on passport validity – even as easyJet aligned with European Commission rules in April.
As Mr Lundgren spoke, Simon Eaton was at Liverpool John Lennon Airport – where he says he was turned away from the 7am easyJet flight to Algarve Airport, where he was starting a golf weekend with friends.
His passport is valid for travel to the European Union until June 11, 2022, for a two-month stay. He is now booked on a Ryanair flight to Dublin and then to Faro, which will take him to Portugal
The Independent has asked easyJet to comment on why it was denied boarding.
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Source: www.independent.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-05-19 10:43:15
