EasyJet has announced that it has grounded its entire fleet of aircraft due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
The airline, which has an office in Bristol, said parking all 344 of its planes “removes significant cost” as the aviation industry continues to struggle amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
It comes a month after the airline cancelled 234 flights, leaving many people in Bristol disappointed.
EasyJet has insisted it “maintains a strong balance sheet” and revealed it is in “ongoing discussions with liquidity providers”.
It has also announced that it has reached an agreement with the Unite union on furlough arrangements for its cabin crew.
The deal will be in place from Wednesday (April 1) for a two-month period and means cabin crew will be paid 80 per cent of their average pay through the government job retention scheme.
EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said: “I am extremely proud of the way in which people across easyJet have given their absolute best at such a challenging time, including so many crew who have volunteered to operate rescue flights to bring our customers home.
“We are working tirelessly to ensure that easyJet continues to be well positioned to overcome the challenges of coronavirus.”
The airline added it operated more than 650 rescue flights to help people stranded due to the virus, the last of which took place yesterday (March 29).
EasyJet pledged to work with governments to “operate additional rescue flights as requested”.
Loganair chief executive Jonathan Hinkles said the Covid-19 pandemic has “had an enormous effect on all UK airlines”.
He continued: “The government has made it clear that it is open to requests for support from individual airlines and, whilst Loganair has not yet taken up this invite, we fully expect to join other UK airlines in doing so in the coming days.”
