EasyJet cancels 1,700 flights this summer due to ‘air traffic control delays’

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EasyJet has cancelled 1,700 flights scheduled for this summer, blaming “challenging conditions” caused by air traffic control problems across Europe.

The low-cost airline on Monday said it would cut 2 per cent of its flying programme for July, August and September with the majority of the cancellations affecting flights at London’s Gatwick airport.

A major source of air traffic control problems is the closure of Ukrainian and Russian airspace, which has caused congestion elsewhere. Only about 80 per cent of normal airspace is available at the moment, at a time when air travel has bounced back strongly from the pandemic.

Eurocontrol, which manages the region’s airspace, has warned of a “challenging” summer, including traffic “overloads” in areas including London, Brussels and Barcelona.

French air traffic controllers have also staged a series of walkouts, while staff at Eurocontrol have warned of possible strike action over the next six months.

“The whole industry is seeing challenging conditions this summer with more constrained air space due to the war in Ukraine resulting in unprecedented [air traffic control delays], as well as further potential ATC strike action,” easyJet said.

It said the cancellations were not caused by staff shortages, and that it has “more crew and pilots flying than ever before”. Last year, the industry struggled to cope with the volume of customers after many airlines made cuts during the pandemic.

Several major airlines cut capacity last summer to try to help operations run as well as possible, and airports including Gatwick and Heathrow imposed passenger caps because of the industry-wide staff shortages.

There have been fewer problems so far this year. The rate of flight cancellations from UK airports in the first half of the year was its lowest since 2019, according to aviation data company Cirium.

By cutting flights in advance, easyJet hopes to inject resilience into its operations, and avoid last-minute cancellations and delays.

It said the cancellations were focused on high-frequency routes where passengers can be shifted to an alternative flight, and that 95 per cent of customers had already been rebooked.