easyJet in 2015

[airazurxtror]

An easyJet flight from London to Turkey was forced to make an unscheduled landing after a popped champagne cork reportedly caused oxygen masks to drop from the ceiling

A stewardess on the plane, which was flying from Gatwick to Dalaman, apparently accidentally fired the stopper into the roof of the aircraft while opening it for two passengers.

The incident caused damage to the ceiling of the jet and also led to oxygen masks dropping down from above cabin crew seats at the back of the plane, the Sun reported.

It meant the flight, which took off at 4.20pm on August 7, had to be diverted via Milan so the masks could be reset - a move easyJet said was in line with safety procedures.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/transpor ... 23601.html

[sn26567]

easyJet considers interlining with longhaul carriers

easyJet Chief Executive Officer Carolyn McCall says her airline has held discussions with various mainline longhaul operators over the possibility of interlining agreements.

"Many airlines have approached us about feeder flights," she told the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung. "If it's workable and pragmatic, then we are absolutely ready to go ahead."

While McCall did not disclose their names, she described the talks as "very interesting and constructive".

The announcement echoes a similar disclosure made by Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary last month in which he confirmed the Irish LCC had held talks with a number of carriers to feed Ryanair shorthaul traffic into their European longhaul hubs.

Among the carriers approached by Ryanair include Aer Lingus concerning feed into its Dublin Int'l hub, TAP Portugal and its Lisbon hub, and Norwegian and Virgin Atlantic concerning their London Gatwick base operations.

Source: ch-aviation

[Inquirer]

I think that such a move is widely expected by now, no?
I for one am a strong believer that the difference between airlines on European routes is no longer to be found so much onboard, but on the ground. Do they offer connections, do they run a network, do they codeshare, have a frequent flyer program to recognize loyalty etc. etc.

Due to its shareholder structure, it can be no surprise that vueling is one of the first of what is widely still called low cost airlines to do all of that, first with their sister airlines, but if I am not mistaken since short also with the wider alliance group partners of those sister airlines. Oh, and Air Berlin of course, with Etihad. Although with the unique shareholder structure, they are caught between a rock and a hard place.

Given these lessons from the past, other so called low cost airlines can not afford to be seen left behind by vueling a second time on this new trend pioneered by them, but their historical roots are a bit of a hindrance to them in this field. Yet easyjet however has always had a preference for main airports and traditionally has been concentrating on fewer but bigger bases, something which can now turn out to be a strategic advantage over direct competitors if they want to offer sufficiently interesting overlaps with them quickly.

In the end however, I think that the way IAG has played its cards is the way forward for aviation consolidation in Europe, something the Lufthansa group has now also realized. A low fare airline is an indispensable part of the full product line up of such aviation groups; without it, they lack the full product range; equally, a stand alone low cost airline may very well disappear too.
In the past their were strong rumors of an AF-KL wizzair merger and although it didn't materialize (yet) wouldn't be surprised to see it happen one day still, just as I could see an easyjet/eurowings merger for instance in say 10 years from now.

The long standing idea there will be 3 large aviation groups doing pretty much everything but low cost + 3 separate low costs next to that is completely outdated: there will be just 3 large groups doing pretty much everything, period.

Those who want to survive will be the ones with the most natural affiliation to any of those 3 entities so they are clogging together almost organically: vueling is the first past the goal line and easyjet seems to be in pole position to secure the second place. The final place is going to be hard fought by all the others, because after that, it may be nothing but crumbs which remain for them given the sheer market size of those 3 entities: 500 planes may just be peanuts in 10 years time, indeed.

[convair]

Interesting contribution, Inquirer.

Yet, in many fields of business, mergers and consolidations are often followed by the emergence of small new operators that want to have a go at it. Many disappear after a few months/weeks/days but a few survive and even succeed to grow if and when they find an interesting niche and deliver a good and reliable service at attractive price.

[Inquirer]

Easyjet raises profit forcast to £675M-£700M fork. (close to €1bn)
Shares rose 6.4%, making it the top raiser in London.
Shares in easyjet have gained almost 30% over the past 12 months.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34136741

Shows once more they are really in the drivers seat of European low cost aviation these days, while others would sell a leg to be back in that seat by morphing into nothing but a clone of them as quickly as they can.

[Inquirer]

Interesting contribution, Inquirer.

Yet, in many fields of business, mergers and consolidations are often followed by the emergence of small new operators that want to have a go at it. Many disappear after a few months/weeks/days but a few survive and even succeed to grow if and when they find an interesting niche and deliver a good and reliable service at attractive price.

Oh, yes of course!

The point I wanted to make is that it's a bit of an outdated idea to still believe in the strategic concept of just 3 aviation groups for Europe doing pretty much everything but low frill flights, with 3 stand alone low frill airlines next to them for the future.

It's clear that such artificial segregration is not going to be maintained in the long run: IAG is proof of that and Lufthansagroup is copying the same strategy, so that makes you wonder if some of the current stand alone low cost airlines are going to be swallowed up by the groups too as they face presssure to scale up at some point. There was already the halted attempt from AF/KL to make an offer to buy wizzair and in some way the IAG purchase of Aer Lingus could be seen as the first timid successful step.

The days the attempts from legacy airline groups to set up their own low costs branch were nothing but poor attempts doomed to fail from the start, are long over: vueling is reportedly a highly successful venture now and Germanwings is a damn good product too (I fly them a lot intra Germany these days), so at one point the need to scale up beyond just organic growth and diversify their product offer and network is going to be feld in the boardrooms of easyjet, Norwegian, wizzair, who knows also ryanair as they are faced with worthy low frill competitors who can benefit from the bigger scale platforms of their parent holdings. The sudden desire of easyjet and ryanair to open up their flights at hub airports to other (connecting) passengers from officially still competing airlines, is not something happening by accident, of course; it's because this is a field where they know they have a meaningful handicap vs. their low frill competitors belonging to larger groups and my bet is it's not going to stop there in the end: full joint ventures and even mergers will follow at some point.

[sn26567]

A German woman was arrested after being found on an easyJet plane at Gatwick Airport without a passport or boarding pass.

Sussex Police were called just after 7am today to a report that the 51-year-old woman had got onto the Tenerife flight before boarding had officially begun.

A police spokesperson said: "Airport staff found that she had no ID, no passport and no boarding pass."

She was arrested on suspicion of entering a restricted area without permission and remains in custody.

The plane's passengers were instructed to go through security screening in the North Terminal again before being allowed to board.

According to easyJet's website the flight to Tenerife departed at 8.45am, which was one hour and 15 minutes behind schedule.

The airline said the safety and security of its passengers and crew was its "highest priority" and apologised for any inconvenience caused by the delay.

[airazurxtror]

Easyjet raises profit forcast to £675M-£700M fork. (close to €1bn)
Shares rose 6.4%, making it the top raiser in London.
Shares in easyjet have gained almost 30% over the past 12 months.
Shows once more they are really in the drivers seat of European low cost aviation these days, while others would sell a leg to be back in that seat by morphing into nothing but a clone of them as quickly as they can.

9 september

EasyJet suffered a bumpy landing among the FTSE fallers when markets closed, after industry comments weighed heavily on the stock.
Despite a solid start to the day, in which shares rose by as much as 3pc, turbulence in the low-cost carrier industry sapped investors of enthusiasm, diverting the share price towards the bottom of the blue chip index.
Last week, the stock posted its biggest one-day rise since January, as the airline raised its full-year profit outlook after reporting a record 7.06m passengers last month amid strong demand for beach and city breaks.
However, despite revising its forecast of full-year growth up 21pc – 7.5 points higher – between £675 and £700m, traders said the no frills airline’s lacklustre figures could not compete with the surprise profit guidance update from Ryanair.
The Irish low-cost carrier raised its full-year profit guidance by 25pc after it enjoyed a bumper summer thanks to poor weather in northern Europe. Mike van Dulken, of Accendo Markets, said: “Ryanair’s update has taken the edge off easyJet’s upgraded profit guidance last week.”


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/mark ... lence.html

[airazurxtror]

EasyJet spring 2016 flights have now been released.
Flights are available to book for travel up to 26 June 2016.

[sn26567]

It was a big administrative fight for easyJet to secure traffic rights to Moscow. Now they seem to abandon the route altogether.

http://www.ato.ru/content/britanskiy-lo ... -v-rossiyu

(Sorry, Russian only)

[sn26567]

Latest tweet from the Ryanair Pilot Group: "easyJet aims to be a good corporate citizen. We employ people on local contracts and in line with local conditions and legislation" (2015)

Hmmm!

[airazurxtror]

easyJet has officially announced suspending its operation between London and Moscow from 21 March, 2016. The decision has been taken in response to the significant and sustained reduction in demand for travel between Moscow and London in recent months which has been driven by a number of factors, including the weakness of the Russian economy together with the tightening of the visa approval process.

http://www.aerotime.aero/en/commercial- ... an-economy

[sn26567]

... and, methinks, the economic sanctions against Russia has been the most important element!

[airazurxtror]

EasyJet experienced its biggest booking day ever last Thursday, 10 September, when flights up until 26 June 2016 went on sale.
More than half a million seats were booked in one day alone.
At one point, the airline was booking more than 800 seats per minute - the equivalent of filling five planes.

[airazurxtror]

EasyJet Tuesday said its number of passengers, representing the number of earned seats flown, for the month of September rose 7.6 percent to 6,610,844 from 6,143,974 reported in September 2014.
Load factor, rose 0.9 percentage points to 93.1 percent from 92.2 percent.
For the rolling 12 months ended September, the number of passengers advanced 6 percent (to 68,630,000) and load factor improved 0.9 percentage points.
The company's full-year profit before tax guidance continues to be within a range of 675 million pounds to 700 million pounds for the year to September 30.


Read more: http://www.nasdaq.com/article/easyjet-s ... z3nmW0oOrz

[sn26567]

easyJet outlines Venice Marco Polo base plans

easyJet has outlined its plans for its third Italian base - Venice Marco Polo - wherein four A319-100s will be based during the first quarter of next year.

At a press conference held on Tuesday, October 6 the head of easyJet (Italy), Frances Ouseley, said his airline would roll out new flights to Bordeaux, Bristol Int'l, Copenhagen Kastrup, Edinburgh, Mykonos, Santorini, Menorca, Olbia, Prague and Stuttgart Echterdingen between February and March of next year. Existing destinations such as Naples Int'l, Paris (Paris CDG and Paris Orly), London (London Stansted, London Southend, and London Gatwick) and Berlin Schönefeld will also see an increase in their respective frequencies.

CEO Carolyn McCall earlier this year said effective April 2016, the UK-based LCC would redeploy aircraft and crew at its current Rome Fiumicino base to supplement operations at its Milan Malpensa and Naples Int'l bases in additon to opening a new base in Venice. Malpensa, already easyJet’s second largest base with eighteen aircraft, will receive three more aircraft while the number of aircraft based at Naples - three - will grow to four.

Source: ch-aviation

[sn26567]

easyJet has ordered 30,000 additional Recaro slimline seats, both to retrofit current A320 fleet and to equip new aircraft.

[airazurxtror]

EasyJet CEO Carolyn McCall singled out Germany and Switzerland as among markets where it aims to grow most in coming years, saying the expansion of Deutsche Lufthansa AG’s discount arm poses little threat.

Capacity is being added to German destinations including Berlin and Stuttgart, McCall said, even as Lufthansa merges its Eurowings and Germanwings brands.
“We don’t see Germanwings as a low-cost carrier, we don’t see them really offering low fares or having a very low cost base. There is an opportunity for a good low-fares carrier.”

EasyJet can sustain 8 percent passenger growth in the next three to five years, the CEO said, adding that it will hire about 310 pilots this year while seeking to double the proportion of women in each new intake to 12 percent. It’s also looking to add 830 cabin crew.

McCall said her attention is fixed on expansion in core European markets, with the focus on boosting frequencies and adding connections between existing destinations rather than opening up entirely new routes and bases.

That’s especially so since a new trip to Tunisia was canceled after the terrorist rampage there in June, since when traffic on EasyJet flights to Morocco and Egypt has also slowed, McCall said, with many passengers instead choosing to travel within Europe.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... or-germany

[airazurxtror]

Sophie Dekkers, director of EasyJet in the UK, said demand had built up for alternative winter sun destinations since an Islamist gunman killed 38 people in Tunisia in June.
Many of those who would ordinarily have travelled to Egypt, Morocco or even Turkey were looking for alternatives in the Mediterranean, she said.

Hotels and restaurants in Greece could stay open into October and November to cater for holidaymakers who are struggling to find affordable winter sun.
Easyjet has entered talks with Greek tourists chiefs to extend the holiday season on the mainland and its islands.
Restaurants, hotels and other parts of the tourist industry which currently open from May to September would be encouraged to take customers from March until November.

"We can’t fly people there if there aren’t hotels or restaurants open, but they’re not going to open unless we’re bringing people in, so it’s kind of chicken and egg," Mrs Dekkers said.

[airazurxtror]

Month ending October 2015 / Change on October 2014
Passengers : 6,398,796 / + 9.7%
Load Factor : 93.3% /+ 2.5pp
Rolling 12 months ending October 2015
Passengers : 69,193,476 / +6.3%
Load Factor : 91.7% / +1.0pp

easyJet’s full year profit before tax guidance continues to be within a range of £675 million to £700 million for the year to 30 September 2015.

- See more at: http://mediacentre.easyjet.com/stories/ ... V5OZ8.dpuf