EasyJet to cut more flights over summer holidays

theguardian.com:

EasyJet is cutting more flights over the summer months, aftergovernment orders designed to avoid further travel chaos at airports across the country.

The Department for Transport and Civil Aviation Authority told airlines last week to review their schedules and ensure flights were deliverable, following post-lockdown staff shortages that have left airlines and airports unable to keep up with a surge in travel as Covid restrictions lifted.

EasyJet announced on Monday that in response to subsequent caps on flights at two of its biggest airports, London Gatwick and Amsterdam, it was “proactively consolidating” a number of flights in order to give customers time to review their trips and an offer them opportunity to rebook.

Flights from other airports are also likely to be affected.

EasyJet said it expected most customers to be able to rebook on to alternative flights, many of which will be on the same day as they originally planned to travel.

“The ongoing challenging operating environment has unfortunately continued to have an impact which has resulted in cancellations,” the easyJet chief executive, Johan Lundgren, said.

“Coupled with airport caps, we are taking pre-emptive actions to increase resilience over the balance of summer, including a range of further flight consolidations in the affected airports, giving advance notice to customers and we expect the vast majority to be rebooked on alternative flights within 24 hours.

“We believe this is the right action for us to take so we can deliver for all of our customers over the peak summer period in this challenging environment,” the chief executive said.

The cancellations will result in easyJet running about 87% of its pre-pandemic flight capacity as of 30 June, and about 90% of