More travel restrictions to important leisure destinations have forced easyJet to cut capacity again. However, the UK government has heeded calls to adopt a regionalized approach to quarantines.
The COVID-19 crisis has heightened the need for more environmentally sustainable practices and the industry needs to “reinvent itself,” a senior easyJet figure has said.
UK LCC easyJet is to close three UK bases at London Southend, London Stansted and Newcastle after ending redundancy consultations with pilots’ union BALPA, triggering further potential redundancies at airports operator and ground handling provider Stobart Group.
UK LCC easyJet has raised £608 million ($796 million) from the sale and leaseback of 23 Airbus A320 family aircraft, increasing its fundraising total to over £2.4 billion since the COVID-19 crisis took hold.
EasyJet expects to fly around 40% of planned capacity in its fiscal fourth quarter (Q4), based on current travel restrictions—up from the 30% previously announced after better-than-expected summer bookings.
Pilots at easyJet have voted to express no confidence in the LCC’s chief operations officer Peter Bellew amid proposed pilot job losses, in a development that the pilots’ union said shows a “serious and widening rift” with the UK airline’s senior management.
LONDON—UK ULCC easyJet plans to make more than 700 pilots redundant and close three of its British bases as it downsizes in the face of the novel coronavirus crisis.
UK-based easyJet is launching a share placement worth up to £450 million ($558 million), in the budget carrier’s latest move to shore up its finances since the COVID-19 crisis took hold.
Ryanair, British Airways and easyJet have written to the UK government to condemn its decision to introduce a 14-day quarantine period for arrivals to the UK as part of its response to the COVID-19 crisis.
EasyJet has said it will have resumed flights to almost three-quarters of its route network by the end of August as London City Airport (LCY) said separately that it would reopen at the end of June as COVID-19 lockdowns are lifted.
EasyJet has said it will reduce staff numbers by 30% and by the end of 2021 have a fleet of around 302 aircraft, 51 fewer than planned before the COVID-19 crisis.
EasyJet has said its finance director Andrew Findlay will step down in a year’s time in the latest twist in an ongoing dispute between management and the LCC’s founder and biggest shareholder, Stelios Haji-Ioannou.
EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou has failed in his bid to oust four senior directors in protest against the LCC’s Airbus order, meaning the board can focus fully on easyJet’s gradual flight relaunch from June 15.
EasyJet has enough liquidity to withstand a lengthy grounding of its fleet and could restart flying with as little as two weeks’ notice once the COVID-19 crisis has eased, according to a trading update from the airline.
