Easyjet has published an update to investors surrounding coronavirus and its impact on the business.
The low-cost carrier said that it had seen “a significant softening of demand and load factors into and out of our Northern Italian bases”, as well “slower demand across our other European markets”.
The airline said that as a result it would be cancelling “some flights, particularly those into and out of Italy, while continuing to monitor the situation and adapting our flying programme to support demand”.
It said that while it was still too early to determine what the impact of the outbreak would be on current year outlook and guidance, it would focus “on delivering operational efficiency and cost savings across a number of areas of the business, including:
- Budget cuts in administrative areas and discretionary spend
- Recruitment, promotion and pay freezes across the network
- Postponement of non-critical project and capital expenditure
- Offering unpaid leave and halting non-mandatory training
- Working with third party suppliers to further reduce cost
- Aircraft reallocation for summer 2020 which will offer the highest revenue opportunities on market recover
Easyjet also said that it is “working closely with authorities and are following the guidelines provided by the World Health Organisation and EASA to ensure the health and wellbeing of our people and customers”, adding that “Our procedures for dealing with communicable diseases are similar to those developed during the SARS epidemic and other global health emergencies”.
The news follows BA’s decision to reduce services to Italy, Seoul and Singapore next month, “to match reduced demand due to the continuing coronavirus issue”.
