easyJet continues to expand its network, with the airline expanding out of its Lisbon (Portgual) base.
easyJet Airbus A320neo taxing at Manchester Airport – Image, Economy Class and Beyond
The move follows the allocation of 18 new daily slots at Lisbon airport by the European Commission. easyJet will base three additional Airbus A321neo, the company’s biggest aircraft, at its base in Lisbon that will enable the airline to launch 21 new routes and increase frequencies to eight countries.
easyJet’s network will increase to 32 routes in total – 30 international and two domestic.
The additional network will include:
United Kingdom
- Birmingham starting 02/11/22, with two flights a week
Spain
- Barcelona starting 30/10/2022 with 4 flights a week
- Bilbao starting 01/11/2022 with 2 flights a week
- Fuerteventura starting 31/10/2022 with 2 flights a week
- Gran Canaria starting 31/10/2022 with 2 flights a week
- Tenerife South starting 02/11/2022, with 2 flights a week
- Valencia starting 01/11/2022 with 3 flights a week
- Madrid increasing to 20 flights per week
France
- Marseille starting 1/11/2022 with 3 flights a week
- Toulouse starting 30/10/2022 with 4 flights a week
- Limoges starting 13/12/2022 with 2 flights a week
- Bordeaux scales to 11 fights a week
- Lyon scales to 9 flights a week
- Nice scales to 6 flights a week
- Nantes scale to 7 flights a week
Switzerland
- Zurich starting 30/10/2022 with 4 flights a week
- Geneva scales to 19 flights a week
Italy
- Milan Malpensa scales to 14 flights a week
- Milan Bergamo starting 30/10/2022 with3 flights a week
Morocco
- Marrakech starting 31/10/2022 with 2 flights a week
Portugal
- Porto Santo starting 30/10/2022 with 2 flights a week
These new flights will go on sale from August 15th.
Overall, easyJet will make 1,75 million seats available this winter season to and from Lisbon – a 61% increase compared to last year, basing a total of 19 aircraft based in Portugal,
José Lopes, easyJet Country Manager for Portugal, commented:
“We are extremely glad to unveil part of easyJet’s new network at Lisbon airport that will start operating later in 2022 and which will turn easyJet into the second largest carrier operating at Lisbon airport. We are particularly happy to be bringing the A321 neo to Lisbon which will contribute to making our operations more sustainable.
Despite the challenging external environment, we’ve never stopped investing in Portugal in the last two years, opening a new base In Faro in 2021 and continuously launching new routes from both Lisbon and Porto throughout the period. By the end of the year, we will have 19 aircraft based in Portugal which will enable us to carry more than 10 million passengers every year, contributing significantly to the connectivity of the country and playing a key role in supporting the national economy.”
It’s amazing what you can do with 18 pairs of slots and three aircraft
easyJet is going for expansion here as it takes advantage of the changes at Lisbon airport and can strengthen its network from it, with a mixture of new routes and three aircraft to help boost its operations in the area.
With slots at major airports always a point of contention (and a certain low-cost carrier just loves to whine about that), it seems easyJet has taken what it has been allocated and got what it wants to strengthen its network out of Lisbon.
Enough to make a home carrier worried? Well, the carrier with the most flights between Portugal and the United Kingdom won’t be TAP for the winter season – that’s for sure.
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