Add Europe to ‘green list’, Easyjet begs, as airline books £700m loss
Easyjet’s boss this morning begged the government to add more European countries to the travel “green list” as the carrier fell to another whopping loss.
Chief executive Johan Lundgren said that the government’s current travel advise, which has been lambasted in recent days, saying it was “very confusing” and “demonising” travellers.
Speaking to reporters this morning, Lundgren said that the UK government should follow EU governments in relaxing restrictions quicker.
“There’s no doubt that the government is taking a much more cautious approach that in Europe, but we don’t believe this is backed up by the latest data”, he said.
Most European countries, Lundgren said, should be moved from the amber list to the green list, picking out Greece and Spain as examples.
The travel list is due to be updated on 8 June, and then again at the end of next month.
He added: “We know there is pent-up demand – we saw this again when Green list countries were released and added more than 105,000 seats – and so we look forward to being able to help many more people to travel this summer supported by our industry-leading flexible customer policies which means they can book with confidence.”
No respite as Easyjet books £700m loss
Lundgren’s comments came as Easyjet fell to a £701m first half loss this morning as travel restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic continued to hammer demand, illustrating just how important it is for the UK’s travel green list to be expanded.
The low-cost carrier said it flew just 4.1m people in the six month period, down 89 per cent on the 38.6m it flew in the corresponding half a year ago.
Revenue plunged 90 per cent, falling from £2.4bn to £240m. The FTSE 250 firm said that the loss was within its guided range of £690m – £730m.
Shares in the firm fell 2.4 per cent this morning.
The figures come just a few days after international leisure travel was allowed again, but only to a select number of locations such as Portugal.
Due to the continuing limits on travel, Easyjet said it was expecting to fly just 15 per cent of 2019’s passengers in the third quarter, with hopes that capacity numbers will climb from June.
Despite yet another loss, Easyjet said that it had sufficient cash to see it through the crisis. Its liquidity currently stands at £5.5bn, while net debt is £2bn.
A cost savings programme is expected to save the airline £500m this year.