EasyJet has said it can get almost its entire fleet in the air to take holidaymakers to “green list” destinations this summer, as the airline reported a £700m loss and 90% plunge in passenger numbers in the six months to the end of March.
Johan Lundgren, easyJet’s chief executive, said: “With leisure travel taking off in the UK again earlier this week where we are the largest operator to green list countries… With so many European governments easing restrictions to open up travel again, we are ready to significantly ramp up our flying for the summer with a view to maximising the opportunities we see in Europe.
“We have the ability to flex up quickly to operate 90% of our current fleet over the peak summer period to match demand. We know there is pent-up demand,” said Lundgren. “We saw this again when green-list countries were released.”
The budget airline said that based on current restrictions, it only expects to fly about 15% of its 2019 capacity between April and June, but said that there had been strong demand for more than 100,000 new seats made available to Portugal after the government’s announcement of green list countries earlier this month.
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EasyJet passenger numbers plunged 89.4% year on year in the six months to the end of March, from 38.6 million to 4.1 million. The carrier flew only 14% of its 2019 flight schedule for the same period.
Total revenues plunged by 90% to £240m, from £2.38bn a year earlier, as easyJet reported a headline loss before tax of £701m. The company had guided analysts to a loss of between £690m to £730m.
EasyJet has instituted a cost-cutting programme to mitigate some of the financial toll Covid is having on its business which aims to deliver £500m in savings this year.
This content first appear on the guardian