With the UK Governments move yesterday, people are scrambling to return from Portugal to the UK, before the country is moved off the green list and onto the amber list.
easyJet is responding, with the airline adding an extra 1000 seats.
easyJet Airbus A319 arriving at Birmingham Airport – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
The airline is adding more seats on flights from Portugal to the UK between Saturday 5th and Monday 7 June, to help flights and holidays customers return to the UK ahead of the sudden move from the UK government to add Portugal to the Amber list.
Over 1000 additional seats have been added on routes from Faro to London Gatwick, London Luton, Bristol and Manchester.
If you need to change flight, you can easily transfer to these flights themselves via Manage Bookings at easyJet.com or via the easyJet mobile app. Passengers on easyJet holidays packages have been contacted directly and supported if they want to make any changes to their holiday arrangements.
In addition, for any passengers who require new tests to be able to return to the UK in line with current UK government requirements, the airline and holiday operator is working with its testing partners to assist customers in Portugal who needs to make new testing arrangements. Approved testing partner Collinson will be contacting all customers who have a single arrivals PCR test booked or who booked a pre-departure test, to advise them to book a second post arrivals test.
To help make this more affordable for customers, for an additional test there will be a 20% discount available for easyJet and easyJet holidays customers, who can use code PORTUGAL20 when booking. Customers will be contacted directly from today to help make it as easy as possible to return if they need to, despite the sudden change in restrictions.
Any customers who require help with testing can contact Collinson at https://www.collinsongroup.com/en/covid-19-testing
easyJet holidays has contacted all customers in Portugal, to assist them to find alternative flights if they want to return home sooner than planned and advising on testing options. The operator has also contacted all customers with imminent departures, to provide them with their options. Customers who no longer wish to travel have the option to make fee-free changes to their holiday date or receive easyJet holidays credit, to use towards a holiday in the future when the time is right.
In Quotes
Johan Lundgren, easyJet CEO commented:
“We know first-hand from our customers what a blow this sudden decision to put Portugal on the Amber list is. With many British tourists currently in Portugal, our priority is to help the customers who need to return ahead of the Tuesday deadline. We are providing over a thousand additional seats from Portugal to the UK by flying larger aircraft on flights and adding some additional flights where there is demand.
“And, for customers who need support with testing requirements, we’re working with approved testing partner Collinson to provide support to customers in Portugal who need to arrange new tests.
“We already offer some of the most flexible polices for customers through our Protection Promise, which means that any customers booked to travel to Portugal this summer who want to change their plans can transfer to another date or destination, fee free.”
Adding the capacity whilst they can
1000 seats represent around five planes of capacity – which is still not a lot but should ease the pressure on those trying to beat the deadline to return to the UK, without having to quarantine.
This can be done by putting the larger A321 the airline operates – or in some cases, adding extra flights.
But it’s forced a quick rethink of the fleet deployment as we head into the weekend, all to beat a deadline.
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