The carrier on Monday (10 July) said it couldn’t deliver its full summer schedule as a result of “unprecedented” ATC delays caused by several factors, including European airspace shrinking by 20% owing to the war in Ukraine, as well as the threat of further industrial action.
EasyJet nevertheless maintains that it is fully staffed, and that 95% of affected travellers have already been rebooked onto other flights.
The announcement comes amid what is set to be the busiest month for UK airports in almost four years, with 92,404 flights scheduled to depart UK airports this month, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
“The whole industry is seeing challenging conditions this summer with more constrained airspace due to the war in Ukraine resulting in unprecedented ATC delays, as well as further potential ATC strike action,” easyJet said in a statement on Monday (10 July).
“We have therefore made some pre-emptive adjustments to our programme consolidating a small number of flights at Gatwick, where we have multiple daily frequencies, in order to help mitigate these external challenges on the day of travel for our customers and we continue to operate around over 90,000 flights over this period.”
Just last week, Raul Medina Caballero – director general of the EU’s air traffic management body Eurocontrol – urged holidaymakers to prepare for a “challenging summer”. He called on all stakeholders to ensure sufficient staffing, and urged airlines to stick to their schedules.
