EasyJet will open a new three-aircraft base at Newcastle International Airport in March 2026, expanding its presence in the northeast of England.
The base returns after a five-year hiatus due to the pandemic and will create around 130 direct jobs for pilots, cabin crew and engineers, while supporting an estimated 1,200 jobs across the wider local economy. The LCC currently operates eight routes from Newcastle, including Amsterdam, Geneva, Palma de Mallorca and Paris, with additional routes for summer 2026 expected to be announced in the coming weeks.
“We’re very excited that next year we’ll be opening Newcastle,” easyJet CEO Kenton Jarvis said during the airline’s half-year results presentation on May 22. “We haven’t got great service for the communities in the northeast, so that will give better route connectivity and great affordable fares.”
The move marks easyJet’s 11th UK base and follows recent base openings at London Southend, Birmingham and Bristol, as the airline continues to expand in its largest market. The LCC plans to operate its biggest-ever UK summer schedule this year, with more than 33 million seats on sale—about 500,000 more than in summer 2024.
The reopening follows the closure of bases in Venice and Toulouse, and comes alongside recent expansions at London Southend and in Italy, where easyJet opened new bases at Milan Linate and Rome Fiumicino after being approved as a remedy-taker under the Lufthansa-ITA Airways deal.
EasyJet reported that load factors for the newly launched London Southend base have exceeded the network average, aided by strong demand from easyJet holidays customers. The airline is also seeing early traction at the new Italian bases.
“With both Rome and Linate, the decision was made very late, so we have quite a short selling window,” CCO Sophie Dekkers said. “But … we expect that to mature going forward.”
Dekkers added that competitive dynamics are also shifting in easyJet’s favor. “Wizz has dropped 14 head-to-head routes with us this summer,” she said. “But interestingly, four of them are in Rome.”
Looking ahead, easyJet continues to prioritize growth in leisure-focused destinations, particularly in non-European markets such as North Africa. The airline has recently expanded its offering from France to Morocco and Tunisia, tapping into strong demand for year-round travel and VFR traffic.
EasyJet posted a headline loss before tax of £394 million for the six months ending March 31, while group revenue rose 8% year-over-year to £3.53 billion. The company expects to achieve a headline profit before tax of £703 million in the 12 months to the end of September.
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