Easyjet ramping up flights
Easyjet has said it is operating more flights than previously planned due to demand exceeding expectations.
The airline is expanding its schedule to 40 per cent of normal capacity between July and September, compared with the 30 per cent it predicted in June.
In the three months to the end of June, the budget carrier made just £7 million in revenue after the company’s fleet was grounded from March 30 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
It started flying again in the middle of June and carried 117,000 passengers in the 132,000 seats it had available in the last two weeks of the quarter, easyjet said.
Johan Lundgren, easyjet chief executive, said: “Returning to the skies again allows us to do what we do best and take our customers on muchneeded holidays.
“I am extremely proud of all of our people whose care and commitment, along with the introduction of our industryleading biosecurity measures, have resulted in customer satisfaction scores reaching a high of 80 per cent since the re-start, an increase of 13 percentage points compared to the same period last year.
“I am really encouraged that we have seen higher than expected levels of demand with load factor of 84 per cent in July with destinations like Faro and Nice remaining popular with customers.
“Our bookings for the remainder of the summer are performing better than expected.”
Easyjet said it has seen strong demand from UK holidaymakers flying to Greece, Turkey and Croatia.
Mr Lundgren claimed the UK’S quarantine policy “is not specific enough” and called for it to be based on regions rather than countries.
He said: “We urged them to look at this from a regional basis, which I know that they are considering. But of course the damage and the uncertainty and the disruption for customers who had booked and needed to go home and quarantine for 14 days, that’s already been taking place.” .The news came as Tui announced it was extending the suspension of its holidays to Portugal for UK customers until at least the end of next week.
The UK’S largest tour operator said it will “continue to review its holiday programme in line with UK Government advice”.
The Government has advised against non-essential travel to mainland Portugal since March 17 due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Tui has already announced that its holidays to mainland Spain for UK tourists are cancelled until August 17, while its programmes in Spain’s Balearic Islands and Canary Islands are on hold until August 10.
This is due to the Government’s decision to reintroduce the 14-day self-isolation requirement for people arriving from Spain and advise against non-essential travel to the country.
Tui said customers due to travel to mainland Spain and Portugal between August 17-31 or the Spanish islands between August 10-16 can amend their booking and receive an incentive to rebook, or cancel and receive a full refund. The firm announced last week it plans to close nearly a third of its high street stores in the UK.