After three long months of grounded flights, EasyJet has announced it will resume flying to almost three-quarters of its route network by August.
To entice customers back the Luton based airline is launching its biggest ever summer sale with over one million flights to holiday destinations across Europe on offer from £29.99 for travel between July 1 and October 31 2020.
The budget airline plans to fly 50 per cent of its 1022 routes in July and 75 per cent in August. Although there will be fewer flights on offer services includes domestic, city and beach destinations as well as city staples of Paris, Milan and Rome; summer sun favourites the Balearics and Canary Islands; lively and culturally rich hotspots in Italy, Croatia and Portugal; and even further afield to exotic destinations, Egypt and Morocco.
Robert Carey, Chief Commercial and Planning Officer at easyJet said:
“We are delighted to announce that we will be flying the majority of our route network across Europe, meaning customers can still get to their chosen destination for their summer holidays this year.
“We’re passionate about helping our customers get back flying, which is why we’re offering one million seats at £29.99 for those planning on booking a holiday this summer. Travel restrictions are being lifted and demand is starting to return, so there’s no better time for us to introduce this sale.”
The airline has confirmed that some flights will initially resume from the 15 June including from London Gatwick, Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Belfast in the UK.
What about safety and wellbeing measures?
New measures, implemented in consultation with aviation authorities ICAO and EASA, will be in place which includes enhanced aircraft disinfection for aircraft; customers, cabin and ground crew will be required to wear masks. There will be no food service onboard flights for the time being.
Watch the video revealing the new measures:
Safety measures
passengers and crew must wear masks onboard at all times.
Initially the bistro and boutique service will not be available. All flights will be equipped with spare sanitary equipment including masks, gloves and hand sanitiser. Aircraft are already fitted with state of art filtration technology. High efficiency particle arresting filters filter 99.97 per cent of airborne contaminants in the cabin, including viruses and bacteria. These filters are the same as those used in hospitals and through them, the cabin air gets replaced every 3-4 minutes.
Safety measures at the airport
To protect customers and ground crew in the airport, passengers will use the automated bag drop to check in their hold luggage and screens will be in place at the check-in desks and at airports where auto bag drop is not available.
Ground crew and cabin will not handle any customer documents during boarding so you will be asked to present and scan your own documents. Online check-in is already available so you can download your boarding pass onto your smartphone or print it out before leaving for the airport.
The ground crew will wear gloves and masks at all times when transporting customer luggage to and from the aircraft.
Other ideas being considered at airports to include wearing masks, self-declaration health forms to be completed ahead of departure, and temperature screening.
Social distancing at the airports, at gates and during boarding will be encouraged. Onboard, and where possible, passengers can choose to sit at distance from other passengers who are not in their party where seats are available.