Low-cost airline Easyjet, hit by staff shortages that recently led it to cancel hundreds of flights, said on Monday it was removing six seats from its A319s in the UK to limit its staffing needs.
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This summer, we will operate our A319 fleet in the United Kingdom with a maximum of 150 passengers on board (compared to 156 in normal times, note) and three crew members
” instead of the usual four, said Easyjet in a statement sent to AFP.
These adaptations concern the 60 planes that make up the company's British fleet of A319s, which indicates that they act in accordance with civil aviation rules in the United Kingdom imposing one cabin crew member for every 50 seats.
Easyjet had to cancel hundreds of flights in early April - on an average of 1,600 daily flights - largely due to employees sick with Covid-19, at a time when the aviation sector, particularly hit by health restrictions at the height of of the epidemic,
Limited impact
Easyjet is also struggling to recruit as airports and airlines in the UK, which had cut staff during the pandemic, are now all looking to hire staff at the same time.
The last six seats are most often reserved in the last days before departure and the company estimates that the impact on its capacity during the summer will be limited.
Reducing the number of seats on some aircraft is "
an efficient way to operate our fleet while building the resilience and flexibility of our operations this summer, where we expect to return to near-2019 flight levels
“says Easyjet.
The company had indicated in mid-April that it expected a pre-tax loss of between 535 and 565 million pounds for the six months ended the end of March, down from the same period in 2021, and welcomed a strong recovery in bookings.