EasyJet bacame the latest major airline that has grounded its entire fleet due to COVID-19 pandemic and are unable to announce the date when they will restart the operations.
The UK budget airline said it had made the move due to the “unprecedented travel restrictions” imposed by governments globally due to the virus pandemic. In a statement on Monday, the airline said that it is grounding all 334 of its planes in Europe, adding that it cannot be sure when flights will resume.
The airline said that it operated the last of 650 “rescue flights” on Sunday to repatriate 45,000 customers, but could not continue to fly “as a result of the unprecedented travel restrictions imposed by governments in response to the coronavirus pandemic.”
EasyJet (ESYJY) operates about 2,000 flights a day on more than 1,000 routes across 36 countries, mostly in Europe. “At this stage there can be no certainty of the date for restarting commercial flights,” the company said, adding that it will depend on regulations and demand.
EasyJet said its cabin crew would be furloughed, with staff paid 80% of their wage from 1 April through the government’s job retention scheme.
The budget airline’s boss Johan Lundgren said he was “working tirelessly” to make sure the airline was “well positioned to overcome the challenges of coronavirus”.
“I am extremely proud of the way in which people across EasyJet have given their absolute best at such a challenging time,” he added.
Decline in number of flights in March in comparison to last years
