An Easyjet flight to Spain was already in the air before its captain realised they had made a mistake with their take-off point, a report has found.
Flight EZY2335, which had 180 passengers and six crew members on board, landed at Málaga Costa del Sol Airport on 13 June 2025, and returned to Luton Airport later that day.
The plane was 65ft (19m) in the air when it cleared the runway, and took off without incident despite its power settings not being adjusted.
A spokesperson for the budget airline said: "We are aware of the report and fully assisted the AAIB with its investigation."
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said the Airbus A320-214 had initially planned to take off from a point on the runway called Intersection Alpha.
However, they did not have the take-off performance, given the aircraft's higher-than-normal weight and the environmental conditions at the time, which was checked and confirmed by the captain.
They therefore agreed to do a calculation using the full-length of Luton Airport's runway, which permitted take-off.
Prior to the flight, three preceding aircraft had departed from Intersection Alpha but "an opportunity was missed to highlight [to Air Traffic Control] the requirement to take-off from the lesser used full-length [position]", the report said.
The AAIB said opportunities to take off from the correct point on the runway were missed "probably by a combination of the crews' habitual behaviour and confirmation bias".
It was also noted the captain and co-pilot may have been busy completing other tasks before departure.
The EasyJet spokesperson added: "[Our] pilots are trained to the highest industry standards and the safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew is EasyJet's highest priority.”
