EasyJet has cut around 1,700 flights from its Gatwick summer schedules, as a result of “challenging conditions” due to ATC strikes and the ongoing war in Ukraine.
The cancellations cover the months of July, August and September, when many customers will be heading off on their summer holidays.
The airline said that 95 per cent of customers affected by the cancellations had been rebooked onto alternative flights, and all affected passengers have been provided with the option to rebook or receive a refund.
Last summer easyJet was also forced to cancel services as the airline industry struggled to cope with the sudden ramping up in demand, following the relaxation of Covid-19 travel restrictions.
Easyjet to cut more summer flights following airport capacity caps
At the time the carrier said it expected the the capacity cuts to be “a one-off this summer”.
But the war in Ukraine, alongside planned strikes by air traffic controllers in Europe, has led it to reduce it schedules at Gatwick this summer.
“We are currently operating up to around 1800 flights and carrying around 250,000 customers per day with more crew and pilots flying than ever before and like all airlines, we review our flights on an ongoing basis,” said a spokesperson.
“As Eurocontrol has stated, the whole industry is seeing challenging conditions this summer with more constrained air space due to the war in Ukraine resulting in unprecedented ATC delays, as well as further potential ATC strike action.
“We have therefore made some pre-emptive adjustments to our programme consolidating a small number of flights at Gatwick, where we have multiple daily frequencies, in order to help mitigate these external challenges on the day of travel for our customers and we continue to operate around over 90,000 flights over this period.”
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