Airline has lift off from lockdown next month
NEW SAFETY MEASURES AS 22 ROUTES OPEN FROM UK AIRPORTS
EASYJET is to resume flights from a number of UK airports, including Newcastle, from June 15.
The low-cost carrier announced it will restart flights on mainly domestic routes between 22 European airports.
In the UK, these include Gatwick, Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Belfast.
The airline said it is “introducing new measures to help ensure safety and wellbeing, including enhanced aircraft cleaning and disinfection and requirement for passengers and crew to wear masks”.
EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said: “I am really pleased that we will be returning to flying in the middle of June.
“These are small and carefully planned steps that we are taking to gradually resume operations.
“We will continue to closely monitor the situation across Europe so that, when more restrictions are lifted, the schedule will continue to build over time to match demand, while also ensuring we are operating efficiently and on routes that our customers want.
“The safety and wellbeing of our customers remains our highest priority, which is why we are implementing a number of measures to enhance safety at each part of the journey, from disinfecting the aircraft to requiring customers and crew to wear masks.
“These measures will remain in place for as long as is needed to ensure customers and crew are able to fly safely as the world continues to recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.”
EasyJet grounded its flights on March 30 as European countries began initiating lockdowns in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
This was initially meant to be in place only until mid-April but this was extended indefinitely as the crisis continued to hit.
Following the announcement, the airline issued refund advice to any passengers that had been affected.
At the time Mr Lundgren said: “Our team are processing refund requests as fast as possible, although the sheer volume of flight cancellations means it is taking longer than normal, so please bear with us. For those of you who choose flight vouchers, these can be used for bookings any time in the next 12 months, for flights over the next two years. This includes the recently released Easter ’21 flight schedule, plus the Summer ’21 schedule which will be on sale shortly.”