30 March, 2020

easyJet grounding all aircraft.....

The UK based European budget carrier easyJet has confirmed its is grounding all its Airbus aircraft as a direct result of the unprecedented travel restrictions imposed by governments in response to the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic.

The airline's boss said he had fully grounded its entire fleet of aircraft,  Johan Lundgren, easyJet CEO now that repatriation flights have been completed - "I am extremely proud of the way in which people across easyJet have given their absolute best at such a challenging time, including so many crew who have volunteered to operate rescue flights to bring our customers home.  We are working tirelessly to ensure that easyJet continues to be well-positioned to overcome the challenges of coronavirus." 



The airline has, over recent days operated over 650 rescue flights and returning home more than 45,000 customers. The last of these rescue flights were operated on Sunday 29 March. The airline confirmed that it would continue to work with government bodies to operate additional rescue flights as and when requested.

The airline is also asking for cabin crew that have been furloughed to volunteer to help out the NHS at the newly created Nightengale Hospital in London's Excel centre. The budget airline advised that, along with the union Unite it had collaboratively reached an agreement on furlough arrangements for its cabin crew. The agreement will be effective from 1 April 2020 for a period of two months and means that crew will be paid 80% of their average pay through the Government job retention scheme.  

Whilst staff are being furloughed for two months at the moment, the airline says there "can be no certainty of the date for restarting commercial flights". It would continuously evaluate the situation based on regulations and demand.   











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