UK LCC easyJet has raised $398.6 million from aircraft refinancing and secured union agreement to cut its Berlin-based fleet from 34 to 18 aircraft, with 418 job losses.
After a deal was agreed that could pave the way for Flybe to restart operations, Routes looks at what became of the carrier’s UK network since its failure.
British LCC easyJet said it would make its first ever full-year loss and warned it expected to fly only around a quarter of the capacity that had been planned pre-pandemic over the winter because of travel restrictions in place in its markets.
The LCC expects to fly just a quarter of its normal schedule over the coming months although looking ahead to next summer and two new seasonal bases will open in Spain and Portugal.
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.
