The airline company provides up to 1,700 daily flights carrying 250,000 passengers.
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In a letter addressed to the management of the company, the French pilots of the British low-cost company, EasyJet warn of the risks of massive cancellations of flights this summer. Reason given: lack of staff, mainly hostesses and stewards understaffed. A little less among the captains, but there too the situation is tense.
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In this letter revealed by the British media, the signatories affirm that the management of EasyJet gives the impression of not having grasped the extent of the problem. Tourism resumes, flights with it, but the ramp-up does not follow. According to Arnaud Wiepler, the president of the company’s SNPL, the cancellation of flights is happening in proportions that have not been seen for ten years.
The group’s management acknowledges that it is facing difficult operating conditions which effectively lead to the cancellation of some of its flights and cause logistical problems in Europe. However, it ensures that it maintains a constant dialogue with the unions and that it will respond directly to the SNPL. For the time being, the company provides up to 1,700 daily flights carrying 250,000 passengers.
Despite everything, EasyJet continues to benefit from good visibility in France. The British group is now the second largest air carrier in France after Air France thanks to a very good presence in regional airports. We have come out of what is called the “stop and go” period which had hit between the confinements: we stop the activity then we restart, which is very complicated for companies to manage.
The resumption of travel concerns traditional customers as much for leisure as for business travellers. But as in other sectors, many employees have taken advantage of public support measures to change orientation, jobs or regions. EasyJet plans to hire around a hundred hostesses and stewards in France, but recruiting and training these staff takes time, and summer is here. Hence the risk of a bottleneck feared by the pilots, who do not call for a strike but issue the alert.