EasyJet looks to ramp up flights from May

British airliner EasyJet has announced it will be resuming flights at scale from May as the company looks to come out of the pandemic after it ravaged the travel and aviation sectors in the hopes of a rebound during the summer.

The pandemic has caused a significant reduction in demand for a number of key industrial sectors, with reduced demand for travel and disuse of both personal and public transport causing other sectors such as fossil fuels to face demand and price slumps.

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EasyJet revealed on Wednesday that many countries were set to resume flying at scale in May, with significant ramp-up predicted for the end of the month at the earliest.

The airliner also revealed it has been operating at low capacity during the pandemic, with official company statistics showing it running flights at just 19% of 2019 levels for the six month period between October 2020 and March 2021.

It expects demand to increase slightly for the next quarter, but many aviation players are expecting it to be a number of years before reaching pre-crisis levels.

For the same six month period, EasyJet is expected to report operating losses in excess of £690 million - far lower than expected due to cost-cutting.

The company also revealed it is in a strong position to bounce back from the crisis, with roughly £2.9 billion in liquidity which may allow it capitalise on a swift rise in demand.

“We maintain significant flexibility to ramp capacity up or down quickly depending upon the unwinding of travel restrictions and expected demand across our European network,” the airliner said in a statement.

As part of its recovery, EasyJet has also revealed its plans to capitalise on consumer desire for summer holidays as lockdown restrictions are eased over the spring.

On April 1, the company announced it will be launching six new routes from Birmingham Airport to various European beach destinations.

These flights are set to commence on June 29 and may be vital in getting consumer demand back to relatively normal levels.

On this topic, Ali Gayward, EasyJet's UK manager said: "We remain of the view that international travel can restart and that, with the right framework in place, restrictions can be safely and progressively reduced and in some cases removed by mid-summer for key destinations. We’ve kept our fleet in a flight-ready mode so we are ready and able to ramp up our services quickly and increase our capacity where we see increased demand for the summer.”

However, there are currently concerns about when travel can resume and anxiety over summer holidays may cause some people to miss their window.

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson has laid out plans for a roadmap for the gradual easing of lockdown measures in time for the summer, but it is still unknown when it will be lifted completely.

The government have urged people not to book summer holidays until more information is available and when the country will be opened up.

Scientists have also warned of the potential for a resurgence in Covid cases despite the significant progress made in vaccine rollout since the start of the year.

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