Strikes and Bad Weather Saw Widespread May Cancellations at EasyJet
The carrier has revealed that it canceled nearly 1,000 flights last month due to poor weather and strikes. There are concerns over the impact that additional actions may have during the summer months. While the airline fumbled in May, the month also saw it post “its best ever winter figures.”
Thanks to strikes and bad weather across Europe, May was a less than impressive month for low-cost carrier EasyJet, The Telegraph reports. The carrier was forced to scrap a total of 974 flights in May.
The airline confirmed that approximately 600 of these cancellations were caused by strikes in Italy and France, but said that the rest of the total cancellations were made as a result of poor weather and restricted air traffic control conditions.
By comparison, EasyJet saw only 117 cancellations occur during the whole of May 2017.
On Tuesday, competitor Ryanair revealed that it had had to cancel 1,100 flights last month. According to the outlet, Ryanair is appealing to aviation regulators in Europe to step in and halt any further industrial action by air traffic controllers.
There are concerns that additional strikes could have a negative impact on travel during the peak summer season.
While May has been something of a disappointment for EasyJet, it did see the carrier release what the outlet reports to be “its best ever winter figures” for the six-month period ending March 31st 2018. Commenting on the gains in a statement, the carrier said, “The strength of EasyJet’s network and customer proposition helped to deliver strong performance in the first six months of the financial year.”
This level of growth, the carrier explained, was enhanced by “a positive trading environment and higher load factors across EasyJet routes”, “capacity reductions by other airlines in EasyJet markets” and “the partial movement of Easter into the first half from the second half in 2017”.
It also reported a 3 million increase in passenger numbers, bringing the total figure to 36.8 million for this reporting period.
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