It seems the troubles are continuing for easyJet who are planning major job cuts ahead
EasyJet Airbus A319 coming into land at Birmingham Airport – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
flights in France and the United Kingdom), it is preparing to cut 30% of its staff from its roster.
The reductions according to the airline:
(reflect) the reduced fleet, the optimisation of our network and bases, improved productivity as well as the promotion of more efficient ways of working.
The airline will launch the consultation process in the coming days.
It is also trying to reduces costs with airports & ground handling, maintenance (deferring time-dependent maintenance spend due to reduced flying). selling and marketing spend.
It has attempted to cut costs with easyJet holidays too.
Meanwhile, it’s fleet is also getting a shave, with the airline expecting by the end of 2021 that fleet will be around 302 aircraft- 51 aircraft lower than the anticipated fleet size for year-end 2021. The airline will achieve the reduction in fleet size will by the deferral of new aircraft deliveries and the re-delivery of leased aircraft.
There might be some good news on the horizon, with the airline noting booking trends on the resumed flights have been “encouraging” and that bookings for winter are well ahead of the equivalent point last year.
However, it does not expect traffic to return to “normal” for at least 3 years.
In Quotes
Johan Lundgren, easyJet CEO said:
“We realise that these are very difficult times and we are having to consider very difficult decisions which will impact our people, but we want to protect as many jobs as we can for the long-term.
“We remain focused on doing what is right for the company and its long-term health and success, following the swift action we have taken over the last three months to meet the challenges of the virus. Although we will restart flying on 15 June, we expect demand to build slowly, only returning to 2019 levels in about three years’ time.
“Against this backdrop, we are planning to reduce the size of our fleet and to optimise the network and our bases. As a result, we anticipate reducing staff numbers by up to 30% across the business and we will continue to remove cost and non-critical expenditure at every level. We will be launching an employee consultation over the coming days.
“We want to ensure that we emerge from the pandemic an even more competitive business than before, so that easyJet can thrive in the future.”
However, The British Airline Pilots Association isn’t impressed, with BALPA General Secretary, Brian Strutton said:
“easyJet staff will be shocked at the scale of this announcement and only 2 days ago staff got a ‘good news’ message from their boss with no mention of job losses, so this is a real kick in the teeth. Those staff have taken pay cuts to keep the airline afloat and this is the treatment they get in return.
“easyJet has not discussed its plans with BALPA so we will wait and see what impact there will be in the UK. But given easyJet is a British company, the UK is its strongest market and it has had hundreds of millions in support from the UK taxpayer, I can safely say that we will need a lot of convincing that easyJet needs to make such dramatic cuts. Indeed, easyJet’s own projections, though on the pessimistic side, point to recovery by 2023, so this is a temporary problem that doesn’t need this ill-considered knee-jerk reaction.”
Expect bumps in the road ahead.
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