News
EasyJet cancels hundreds more flights across June
The airline has blamed staffing issues caused by the pandemic for the cancellations
EasyJet is cancelling hundreds more flights scheduled across June in a bid to combat ongoing staff shortages.
In a message to staff on Friday, the airline’s chief operating officer Peter Bellew said EasyJet was making pre-emptive cancellations for the ‘coming days and weeks’ to ‘increase resilience across the network’.
The message read, as per the Guardian: “Making these cancellations is not something we take lightly, but what’s worse is to cancel our customers’ plans on the day that they are ready to fly.
“We’re all aware of the impact the current situation is having on our customers, our people and our reputation.”
BriYYZ / Wikimedia Commons
Bellew went on to explain that the airline is also working on a plan to remedy issues ‘within our own operations that are in our control’, adding: “We also want to ensure that we have the correct mitigations in place for the issues affecting the industry.
“We want to share the plan on this very soon however, we also need to deal with the immediate operation. We’re making some pre-emptive cancellations for the coming days and weeks in order to increase resilience across the network.”
Read More: TUI is cancelling hundreds of flights from Manchester Airport over the next month
An EasyJet spokesperson added: “Due to the ongoing impact of the challenging operating environment on our daily operations, we have made a small proportion of additional advance flight cancellations for June.
“We are informing customers in advance to minimise the impact on their plans and provide the option to rebook before travelling or receive a refund, and our customer service hours have been extended to support affected customers.”
The budget airline has foiled the holiday plans of thousands with around forty flights a day to-and-from the UK – a total of around 400 – being cancelled across the month.
EasyJet and other airlines including TUI have blamed the ongoing cancellations and disruption on staffing issues both in the air and on the ground.
They say this is a result of having to furlough and let go thousands of workers during the pandemic, many of whom went on to get new jobs with other companies.
Airports have also fallen victim to staffing issues in the last few months, with Manchester Airport recently pushing a ‘major recruitment drive‘ to rectify the delays and disruption.