EasyJet suffers £645 million losses in half a year due to pandemic

20 May 2021, 09:09

EasyJet has suffered a loss of £645 million in half a year and still expects to fly at just 15 per cent of its pre-pandemic capacity until June.

The low-cost airline faced steep half-year losses but plans to make a recovery with flights to green list countries.

Pre-tax losses for the six months to 31 March widened from losses of £353 million a year earlier.

The airline saw an expected £701 million in losses against £193 million on an underlying basis the year before.

The group is expecting to only fly 15 per cent of its pre-pandemic flight programme until June, when it will begin to build capacity.

This is a slight drop from a previous update, where plans were in place to fly 20 per cent of their usual schedule.

Passenger numbers have been down by almost 90 per cent due to the pandemic.

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Chief executive of easyJet Johan Lundgren said: "With leisure travel taking off in the UK again earlier this week where we are the largest operator to green list countries, and with so many European governments easing restrictions to open up travel again, we are ready to significantly ramp up our flying for the summer with a view to maximising the opportunities we see in Europe.

"We have the ability to flex up quickly to operate 90% of our current fleet over the peak summer period to match demand.

"We know there is pent-up demand - we saw this again when green list countries were released and added more than 105,000 seats - and so we look forward to being able to help many more people to travel this summer."

This comes after Mr Lundgren urged the prime minister to add "most of Europe" to the green list for international travel, suggesting prices will not be raised in coming months.

A cost-cutting programme is in place, aiming to make £500 million of savings in the year to September 2021.