LONDON: EasyJet said on Monday it was canceling flights to and from the UK after high Covid rates in Europe left the British carrier understaffed.
It comes as the global airline industry, despite recovering from the lifting of lockdown restrictions, has encountered new costly headwinds in the form of rising fuel costs.
EasyJet’s rival Ryanair announced on Monday that it expects a net loss of at least 350 million euros ($385 million) for the fiscal year just ended.
This compares to a loss of at least 250 million euros in a previous forecast by the Irish airline.
EasyJet said separately that “as a result of the current high rates of Covid infection across Europe, as in all companies… (there is) a higher than usual level of employee illness”.
After canceling more than 200 flights over the weekend, EasyJet said it had pre-emptively canceled 60 for Monday.
The airline noted it was a “small portion” of the more than 1,645 flights scheduled for the day.
“We have taken steps to mitigate this by adding additional standby crew, but given the current sickness situation we have also decided to make some advance cancellations,” EasyJet said in a statement.
In the UK, Covid infection rates have hit a record high, according to official figures on Friday.
An estimated 4.9 million people in the UK had Covid-19 in the week ending March 26, or 600,000 more than the previous week, the Office for National Statistics said.
The World Health Organization has said several European countries including the UK, France, Germany and Italy have lifted their Covid curbs too “brutally” and are seeing a surge in cases likely due to the more easily transmissible BA2 variant.
– Rising fuel costs –
Ryanair added on Monday that its net loss for the 12 months to the end of March 2022 would be a maximum of 400 million euros, up from a previous estimate of 450 million euros.
The Dublin-based airline also said it has increased its hedging to cover 80 per cent of its crude oil-refined jet fuel, the price of which has risen as economies reopen after lockdowns and due to supply shortages after major oil producer Russia invaded Ukraine .
Airlines are trying to bet against volatile oil prices by hedging – or taking a defensive position in futures markets.-AFP
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