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Easyjet plane in Berlin: fewer guests, fewer flight attendants
Photo: Patrick Pleul / dpa
The British low-cost airline Easyjet wants to reduce its number of seats – due to a massive shortage of staff.
Easyjet announced that customers will only be able to reserve 150 instead of 156 seats in the 60 Airbus A319 aircraft based in Great Britain.
The airline can thus reduce the number of on-board staff from four to three people.
The low-cost airline had to cancel hundreds of the planned 1,600 flights a day at the beginning of April due to staff shortages.
Many employees had to stay at home because of a corona infection and were therefore absent just when the demand for air travel was increasing sharply.
waiting times at airports
The industry-wide shortage of staff in Great Britain is also causing chaos at airports: in Birmingham and Manchester, passengers sometimes had to wait for hours in front of security checks on Monday – also because numerous employees had been made redundant during the pandemic.
Birmingham Airport said more than 40 percent of the workforce had to be laid off during the pandemic.
Last November, a hiring offensive was started again, which apparently is not progressing as quickly as expected.
There have also been very long queues at London's Heathrow and Stansted airports in recent weeks.
According to PA, British Transport Minister Grant Shapps wants to introduce a new regulation that would allow young professionals in aviation to start their training without having to wait for all safety clearances.
rai/AFP
