… of pre-pandemic levels
The BBC and the Guardian both reported yesterday that easyJet boss has called on the UK government to add “many more” European countries to its “green” quarantine-free travel list, as the airline announced that it was ramping up the number of flights it operates to 60% of pre-pandemic levels during the summer holiday season.
The airline will operate up to 1,400 flights a day between July and September. On Monday of this week, it ran 1,000 flights.
easyJet also revealed that fewer than half of its UK summer flights are currently sold, compared with 69% at this point in 2019, and that two-thirds of its bookings had come from mainland Europe. Normally, its business is split 50-50 between the UK and the rest of Europe.
Johan Lundgren, the easyJet chief executive, said the UK was falling behind the rest of Europe, and criticised the UK government’s different approach to opening up international travel compared with opening up the economy.
A new tab has been added to the top of each page with a link to resources dealing with COVID-19 in Madeira – this covers the latest government regulations on travel to the island, how to get a PCR test, and many other links that will be useful to people wanting to travel to and from Madeira
COVID-19 in Madeira: daily updates can be found in an earlier post
Vaccinations in Madeira: updates can be found in an earlier post
I used to fly easyJet six times a year pre-pandemic however, for reasons that are beyond me, easyJet cancelled all flights from Manchester to Funchal from October 2020 to March 2021 citing lack of demand. That might have been understandable if they hadn’t also cancelled all flights from October 2022 when could not possibly have judged demand. It’s an all year destination for goodness sake and I’ve never known a flight not to be full.
It’s cancelled so far ahead? From October 22??.??.? 15 months ahead? What do they know that we dont!!!
Which airlines let you book 15 months ahead? Even BA only let you book 11 months ahead.
Hi Maurice
I’ve bookings with easyJet for Sep 21, Mar 22, May 22, Jul22 and Sep 22 but there are no flights for my Nov 21 and Jan 22 trips from Manchester. Bizarre!
Johan Lundgren is right about the way the UK Government is handling the foreign travel issue.