Easyjet confirms more international flights to restart from 1 July
Easyjet has confirmed plans to begin flying from airports across Europe from July, the low-cost carrier said this morning.
After restarting its services with a small number of flights last week, the airline today outlined plans to expand both domestic and international operations.
From 1 July, Easyjet will operate 500 flights a day across Europe, as well as 900 a week to and from the UK.
By August, it is hoping to run 75 per cent of its 1022 routes, though it warned passenger numbers would be at about 30 per cent of usual capacity due to coronavirus.
Some of the reintroduced destinations include Paris, Barcelona and Milan, as well as flights to the Balearic and Canary Islands and holiday hotspots across the Mediterranean.
Chief operating officer Robert Carey said: “We are really pleased to be relaunching even more of our flights from 1 July and starting to get customers away on their much-needed summer holidays”.
The announcement comes as the airline industry awaits the government’s announcement as to which countries will be included under “air bridge” arrangements.
Ministers are expected to share details of the plan on Monday, but the Telegraph reported that short-haul European destinations such as France, Spain, Italy and Greece will be among the first tranche of countries named.
The government will reportedly take a three-stage approach to getting flying going again, starting with European nations and then expanding to take in international locations.
This morning Easyjet separately announced it had raised £419m through a share placing to help bolster its finances through the coronavirus recovery period.
In total, the budget airline placed 59.5m ordinary new shares – 15 per cent of the firm’s existing share capital – at a price of 703p per share.