Easyjet confirmed last night that it had secured a £600 million loan from the Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF), issued by HM Treasury and the Bank of England.
In addition the carrier has drawn down $500 million (£407 million) from its Revolving Credit Facility, raising cash reserves to around £2.3 billion.
The news came on the same day that Easyjet’s founder and largest shareholder Stelios Haji-Ioannou again called for the carrier’s £4.5 billion contract with Airbus to be cancelled, warning that failure to do so could see the airline run out of money “around August 2020, perhaps even earlier”.
Stelios: “Easyjet will run out of money” by August if Airbus order is not cancelled
Easyjet grounded its entire fleet at the end of March, stating that “At this stage there can be no certainty of the date for restarting commercial flights”.
Commenting on the news Johan Lundgren, Easyjet’s CEO said:
“We remain absolutely focused on ensuring the long-term future of the airline, reducing our costs and preserving jobs, to make sure Easyjet is in the best position to resume flying once the pandemic is over. We are pleased that we have now reached agreement with both Unite and BALPA regarding furlough arrangements for UK-based EasyJet pilots and crew.”
“Our current priority is to safeguard short term liquidity, so we have borrowed from the CCFF and drawn down on our Revolving Credit Facility in order to increase our liquidity in the event of a prolonged grounding of the fleet.
“The CCFF provides businesses with access to funds at the commercial rates which were available before the coronavirus crisis and any UK company that had an investment grade rating before the crisis can apply for this funding.”
