The easyJet commercial teams are selling a schedule that flight operations can’t sustain because the many “LEAN” cost reduction plans are turning against them, according to French pilots union SNPL. “As a result, many easyJet flights are delayed and even cancelled“.
In an open letter to easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the union complains that “the airline has turned into a machine in which the employee is reduced to an adjustable variable, a cost and the passenger, simply there for profit. Customers are the victims of this tightening spiral, with daily cancellations of flights and handling agents who do not know how to answer them. The altercation at Nice airport two weeks ago is the physical demonstration that a final stage of exasperation has been reached.”
According to the SNPL, the crews are pushed to their flight time limits on a daily basis, pilots are being asked to use their discretionary power to exceed the legal flight time limits to facilitate an unachievable programme, to the detriment of passenger and crew safety. Since passengers understand that they can claim huge compensation in the event of cancellations and delays – according to the new European rules -, the pressure has risen in the easyJet headquarters.
SNPL denounce the pairings of flights as being “too optimistic“: in a sky more overcrowded than ever, with lots of ATC slots, it is unrealistic to plan every day a schedule that extends to the legal limit of flight times, but the company still ignores the expertise and experience of the crews.
You have 8 times more chances of your easyJet weekend flight being cancelled this summer.
Crews are hitting legal flight time limits more often, more crews are declaring being fatigued, exhausted and unfit for operation. The union has called upon the easyJet founder to restore the values that have beaten down the easyJet image.
