Easyjet will make a decision in the autumn on whether to introduce allocated seating across its network.
The no-frills airline began trialling allocated seating in April on 16 routes including seven from Luton and four Glasgow services (see online news May 5).
Easyjet chief executive Carolyn McCall said the airline would assess the success of the allocated seating trial at the end of August after the peak summer travel season.
“Early indications are positive, but until I get to the end of August, I will not really want to commit on whether this is going to go ahead or not,” she said.
“We need to really make sure operationally - when we have very high load factors in the 90s - that we can deliver it on time.”
McCall added that Easyjet would not roll out allocated seating if it caused a decline in the airline’s on-time performance.
"The most important thing for us is to get the returns right and to get on-time performance right,” she said. "If we can do that and remain as efficient as we are, then it will be worth doing. But if we can't do that, it won't be worth doing - even if our passengers love it.”
Easyjet also said that it was still putting the “building blocks” in place to attract more business travellers.
“They’re still not all in place; the Amadeus technology doesn’t come on stream until the end of December,” said McCall. “They are doing particular technology for Easyjet to be more accessible on Amadeus. That takes a year so they started that when we signed the contract in January.”
“We’re increasing our share of business in a tough market and we are seeing some trading down where people are being much more cost conscious on business travel in Europe.”
For more information visit easyjet.com.
Report by Rob Gill
This report was originally published on Business Traveller's sister website abtn.co.uk.
