Thousands of passengers are facing travel disruption after easyJet axed 1,700 summer flights, as Britain’s biggest budget airline battles with daily cancellations at its main base, London Gatwick.
After weeks in which hundreds of flights to and from the Sussex airport have been cancelled at the last minute, easyJet has told 180,000 passengers that their departures in July, August and September have been grounded.
The firm says 95 per cent of the affected travellers have been rebooked on other easyJet flights – leaving 9,000 currently without a replacement.
Julia Lo Bue-Said, chief executive, Advantage Travel Partnership, told The Independent: “This is really going to be devastating for many families and people who are looking forward to their plans and ready to depart.
“Trying to source new flights at the last minute won’t be helpful for anybody.”
Under European air rules, passengers whose flights are cancelled are entitled to travel on any other airline that has seats available on the original day of travel, at easyJet’s expense.
Passengers whose flights are grounded with less than two weeks’ notice are also entitled to cash compensation of £220 (or £350 for flights above 1,500km), unless easyJet can rebook them on a flight that arrives close to the original time.
Taking so much capacity out of the summer market, in a year when seats are already scarce, will force fares higher and reduce availability for people who have not yet booked their summer trip.
The airline claims “unprecedented” air-traffic control delays, which it says are three times longer than before the pandemic, are responsible. But sources have claimed to The Independent that the airline does not have sufficient pilots to operate its promised summer 2023 schedule.
On Saturday alone, easyJet grounded more than 40 flights to and from Gatwick, affecting more than 6,000 passengers. Between them, easyJet’s rival airlines at the Sussex airport, cancelled a total of eight departures and arrivals on the same day.
On Sunday, dozens more easyJet departures were axed, including flights to the key Spanish holiday airports of Barcelona, Alicante and Malaga. In addition, passengers waiting at Gatwick for the last Belfast International flight of the day, and at Budapest for a flight back to London, had their trips cancelled while they were waiting at the gate.
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