Airlines easyJet to close three bases in the UK

EasyJet has announced, that it will close its bases at London Stansted, London Southend and Newcastle, as it is continuing to work together with the British Airline Pilots Association BALPA for the next phase, which could include voluntary redundancies.

The carrier has also closed a collective consultation period for individuals and stated, that it still committed to work with Unite on the individual consultation process. EasyJet reached agreement with Unite on the terms and selection criteria for redundancies of crew member.

The decision to cut costs by closing three operational bases and making redundant several employees, comes after the Coronavirus pandemic hit the industry hard. Currently, the carrier is beginning to resume flights but is nowhere near the network from pre-COVID-19.

EasyJet will cease the based operations from London Stansted, London Southend and Newcastle from 31 August this year. While Stansted and Newcastle will remain part of the carrier´s route network, Southend will not be served anymore.

Johan Lundgren, easyJet CEO, said:  “We have had to take the very difficult decision to close three UK bases as a result of the unprecedented impact of the pandemic and related travel restrictions, compounded by quarantine measures in the UK which is impacting demand for travel.”

“Working closely with our employee representatives, I am pleased that we have been able to identify ways to significantly reduce the number of proposed compulsory redundancies through providing enhanced voluntary redundancy packages for all UK crew alongside additional options like part time and seasonal contracts, base transfers and unpaid leave which we expect to result in reducing the number of job losses overall,” Lundgren added.

According to IATA, the level of the pre-pandemic market will not be reached again until 2024. Since the start of the pandemic, easyJet needed to make decisive decisions to remove costs and non-critical expenditure at every level, in order to stay sustainable for the moment.

In the United Kingdom, easyJet now still operates from eight bases, serving flights to over 490 destinations. The carrier has also stated, that it will continue to review the network and the bases so that they are optimized in the current environment.

EasyJet is a low-cost carrier, which was founded in 1995 and has its headquarters and London Luton. The group currently consists of easyJet, easyJet Europe and easyJet Switzerland. Together, the airlines operate with a fleet of 327 Airbus A319s, A320s and A321s,