Is EasyJet risking passenger safety by scheduling too many flights?

Too many scheduled flights of EasyJet leave the crew exhausted and the passengers at risk, says France’s pilots union.

Staff are expected to work over legal flight time limits and intimidated if they refuse, the head of the union said in an open letter to the company’s main shareholder, Stelios Haji-Ioannou. “A red line has been crossed and we are very shocked,” Arnaud Wiplier of the SNPL union said. “The airline has eyes bigger than its stomach; the schedules are impossible.”

He said that when a plane is scheduled to make six flights a day, chances are most certain that the last flight of the day will either be delayed or cancelled.

According to the union, the crew feel exhausted at the end of the day and they are pushed beyond their limits every day to meet the scheduled flight services. The letter said that the “Pilots are being asked to use their discretionary power to exceed the legal flight time limits to facilitate an unachievable programme, to the detriment of passenger and crew safety.”

The combination of a heavy workload, the typical summer delays from busy airports, and slow payment to staff has created stress all the way down the line, the union said.

The airline however said that they are “surprised” by the letter from the pilot union, as they have already resolved the issue and continued to work closely with union members.

About 17 million people fly with easyJet in France each year and the airline added that it “would never compromise on safety”.