EasyJet slashes Gatwick hours amid ‘operational issues’
EasyJet has announced it is “proactively” canceling flights at Gatwick in response to a cap introduced by the airport.
The airline has canceled dozens of daily flights at West Sussex Airport in recent weeks, some of them while passengers were already on the plane.
He said he wanted to “build resilience” as the aviation sector across Europe experiences “operational issues”.
These include delays in air traffic control, staff shortages in ground handling services and at airports, and increased delays in identity checks for new recruits.
Gatwick announced last week that it would reduce the number of daily flights in July and August to help with staffing issues.
A limit on flights has also been introduced by Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.
EasyJet said: “In response to these caps and in order to build resilience, easyJet is proactively consolidating a number of flights at affected airports.
“This gives customers advanced notice and the ability to rebook on alternative flights.”
The airline said it expects to be able to rebook “the majority” of passengers to other departures, “many being on the same day”.
EasyJet has admitted there will be a “cost impact” from the disruption, and the amount of money it is spending to operate each seat per non-fuel mile will “exceed” previous forecasts.
He said: “We believe these capacity/cost impacts are unique this summer as we expect all parties to build resilience in time for the 2023 peak periods.”
The carrier expects capacity between April and June to be 87% of 2019 levels, rising to 90% in the following three months.
Chief Executive Johan Lundgren said: “Providing a safe and reliable operation for our customers in this challenging environment is easyJet’s top priority and we are sorry that for some customers we have not been able to provide the service they expect. they expect from us.
“While in recent weeks the measures we have taken to build resilience have enabled us to continue to operate up to 1,700 flights and carry up to a quarter of a million customers per day, the difficult operating environment unfortunately continues to have an impact, which has led to cancellations.
“In addition to the airport caps, we are taking preventative measures to increase resilience over the remainder of the summer, including a series of further flight consolidations at affected airports, giving customers advance notice, and we expect the vast majority to be re-booked on alternative flights within 24 hours.
“We believe this is the right action to take so that we can deliver to all of our customers during the peak summer period in this challenging environment.”