easyJet is a hugely popular airline among British holidaymakers thanks to its low prices and wide range of destinations. However, the budget carrier is one of many which is suffering as coronavirus sweeps the planet. easyJet has already cancelled multiple flights as the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advises against all but essential travel.
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Now it has announced that it will be grounding the majority of its fleet from Tuesday.
Rescue flights will continue to operate, with these likely being completed by Monday 23 March.
easyJet has said they intend to operate “a minimal schedule of essential services on some routes.”
The carrier will be reviewing their flight schedule every week.
easyJet said in a statement issued yesterday: “Following the country lockdowns, travel restrictions and changes to travel advice across its network, easyJet has taken the decision to ground the majority of its fleet of aircraft from Tuesday 24 March onwards.
“We will continue to operate rescue flights as required to repatriate customers and anticipate most of our rescue operations to be completed by Monday 23 March.
“Details of the rescue flights we are operating to repatriate customers can be found here.
“If you are currently abroad, we urge you to rebook yourself onto a rescue flight prior to Monday.
“In addition, we anticipate operating a minimal schedule of essential services on some routes.
“This will be a maximum of 10 percent of our usual capacity during this time of year and mainly routes to, from and within the UK.
“We will continue to review our flight schedule on a weekly basis to ensure that it matches current demand.
“With recent guidance, we recognise many customers with existing reservations do not intend to travel, and so we would encourage them to change their tickets for free now, as this will allow us to best match our remaining flying to the demand.
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“easyJet continues to waive all change fees for customers who want to move their flight to a later date and they can now change up until 28 February 2021.
“Customers will be contacted directly if their flight is cancelled and will be provided with their options.”
Johan Lundgren, easyJet CEO, said: “These are unprecedented times for the airline industry.
“We know how important it is for customers to get home and so are continuing to operate rescue flights over the coming days to repatriate them.
“Significantly reducing our flying programme is the right thing to do when many countries have issued advice to their citizens not to travel unless it is essential and the aircraft groundings will also remove significant levels of variable costs at a time when this remains crucial.”
As for those stuck abroad, travel expert Simon Calder shared his travel advice on BBC’s The Travel Show today.
“Assume you won’t get any help from your airline, travel insurance company or embassy,” Calder said.
“You have to make decisions now, there’s no time to lose,” the expert warned. “Spend what you need to, get family and friends to pay for your ticket – just get yourself out and then ask questions later.”
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