Thousands of passengers are struggling to recover their travel plans after easyJet cancelled 1,700 summer flights as it battles delays at its main base, London Gatwick.
After weeks in which hundreds of flights at the airport have been cancelled at the last minute, Britain’s biggest budget airline has told 180,000 passengers that their departures in July, August and September have been grounded.
The carrier blames “unprecedented” air-traffic control delays, which it says are three times longer than before the pandemic.
The airline said 95% of those affected had already been contacted and rebooked on alternative flights, and the remaining passengers would be notified and offered refunds or rebooking on Monday. It is understood about 9,000 passengers have yet to be put on new flights.
Easyjet announced the decision as many schools in England and Wales prepare to break-up for the summer holidays.
July is scheduled to record the highest number of UK flight departures since October 2019 before the Covid pandemic, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
It said the number of flights departing the UK would be 11% higher than July last year.
EasyJet said its cancellations roughly represent the equivalent of one day's worth of flights. It will still operate about 90,000 journeys over the period.
A spokesperson for EasyJet said the whole airline industry was seeing "challenging conditions this summer" as the closure of Ukrainian airspace due to Russia's war caused congestion in the skies and disrupted flights.
They also said planned strikes by air traffic controllers in Europe could have an impact.Easy Jet cancels 1,700 flights ‘ traffic control delays
"We have therefore made some pre-emptive adjustments to our programme consolidating a small number of flights at Gatwick, where we have multiple daily frequencies, in order to help mitigate these external challenges on the day of travel for our customers," the spokesperson said.
"Customers whose flights are affected are being informed, with 95% of customers being rebooked onto an alternative flight and all customers provided with the option to rebook or receive a refund."
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