Tag Archives: easyJet

easyJet partners with Cranfield Aerospace Solutions

easyJet has announced it is working with Cranfield Aerospace Solutions (CAeS) to support the development of its hydrogen fuel cell propulsion system for commercial aircraft, as part of the airline’s ambition to de-carbonize aviation.

Cranfield Aerospace Solutions is developing its hydrogen fuel cell propulsion system for an existing 9-seat Britten-Norman Islander aircraft, which is planned to be flying by 2023, and is now working with easyJet to understand how the adoption of zero-carbon technologies could integrate with an airline operations for future introduction of the technology.

easyJet will support Cranfield Aerospace Solutions on the project, providing an airline operator’s perspective on the development of hydrogen propulsion and internal expertise, to assist in the development of this technology for commercial aviation.

Championing the development of a zero-emission aircraft to decarbonize aviation has long been a focus for easyJet and the airline is working with partners across the industry like Cranfield, as well as Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Wright Electric, to accelerate the development of zero-emission technologies and supporting infrastructure. The airline is optimistic that it could begin flying customers on planes powered by hydrogen-combustion, hydrogen-electric or a hybrid of both by the mid to late-2030s.

In November, the airline announced that it has joined Race to Zero, a global UN-backed campaign to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 at the latest. In joining Race to Zero, the airline is committing to set an interim science-based target for 2035 as well as to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, of which technology for zero-emissions flying will play an important part.

In 2019, it became the first major airline worldwide to offset the carbon emissions from the fuel used for all its flights, and currently remains the only major airline in Europe to do so. This comes at no additional cost to its customers and the airline only supports projects that are certified by either Gold Standard or Verified Carbon Standard. This is an interim measure while new technologies are developed.

Beyond carbon, easyJet is focusing on reducing plastic – more than 36 million single-use plastic items were eliminated – as well as reducing waste within its wider operations and the supply chain. The airline recently introduced new crew uniforms made from recycled plastic bottles. With 45 bottles in each uniform this has the potential to prevent 2.7 million plastic bottles from ending up in landfill or in oceans over the next five years.

easyJet holidays and University of Oxford announce partnership to establish Sustainable Development Goals Lab

UK tour operator, easyJet holidays and the University of Oxford announced today they are partnering to establish the Oxford SDG Impact Lab. The two will work together to identify challenges and opportunities for sustainable tourism. This will help easyJet holidays pursue its aim to be an industry leader in sustainable tourism that has a positive impact on the environment and local communities.

The holidays company recently launched its sustainability strategy, aligned with the sustainable development goals (SDG) of the United Nations. It has now become the industry partner at the Oxford SDG Impact Lab, where selected students will be mentored and trained to deliver academically rigorous, evidence-based reports whose aim is to improve key areas of social and environmental development in a number of destinations where easyJet holidays operates.

The Oxford SDG Impact Lab will be made up of 20 graduate students, mainly from the social sciences and humanities, and will get underway in January 2022. Students will identify challenges and opportunities to develop sustainable tourism in the focus destinations, supported and mentored by Oxford University staff, as well as a dedicated team of experts from easyJet holidays.

The students will employ a range of research methods to develop a proposal for their destination that advances at least one of the SDGs. The program will include a four week research trip to destinations across Europe in the summer of 2022, to help develop proposals. Throughout the program, easyJet holidays will support students, providing industry and business knowledge to help shape their proposals.

The program will culminate in September 2022, when the students will deliver their recommendation reports. easyJet holidays will then decide which projects it will champion, to develop and support sustainable practices in its focus holiday destinations. At the end of the program, easyJet holidays may ask one of the students to join the organization to pilot one or more of the proposed projects.

Matt Callaghan, easyJet holidays Director of Customer & Operations, said:

“We only launched easyJet holidays in 2019 but we were always clear that when it comes to sustainability we want to lead the industry and we want to integrate sustainability into every aspect of our business, because, now more than ever, purpose beyond profit is essential.

“Which is why we’re so pleased to be working with the University of Oxford, combining our deep industry expertise with some of the brightest minds in the country, to help us identify where we can have a real impact and make meaningful change on the people and places that make our destinations so special.

“This is the first partnership of its kind and we’re really excited for the program to get underway. We’ll be part of it at each and every step to provide our support and expertise, and we look forward to seeing the recommendations from the SDG Impact Lab students on what we can do to deliver on our commitment to providing holidays that don’t cost the earth.”

Professor Alexander Betts, who is Co-Founder of the SDG Impact Lab, and responsible for graduate training across the social sciences at the University of Oxford said:

“We are delighted to be able to partner with easyJet holidays to launch the new SDG Impact Lab. It will offer our brilliant graduate students a unique opportunity to acquire practical skills and apply their talents to advance the UN sustainable development goals. The Lab represents a leap forward in our ability to support experiential learning and enable our students to change the world for the better.

“It’s important that our students can complement their academic studies with the acquisition of transferrable skills in areas such as leadership and project management. They need to be able to work within interdisciplinary teams and collaborate with business, government, and third sector organization. The combination of a 16-weeks skills training program with a field-based research internship makes this a pioneering step-forwards in how we deliver graduate education.”

Earlier this year easyJet holidays launched its inaugural sustainability strategy and became the first major UK tour operator to offset the carbon emissions directly associated from its package holidays, comprising the fuel used for flights and in-destination transfers, as well as the energy used from hotel stays. The new strategy focuses on three core pillars – create better holiday choices which is about making sustainable travel affordable and accessible to everyone; keep our holidays special which is maximizing the benefits and minimizing the negative impacts of travel and tourism including a commitment to support hotels it works with to achieve certification by a GSTC accredited certification body or certification to a GSTC recognized standard, and transform travel for everyone which means embedding sustainability into business decisions and behaviors and driving meaningful change in the industry.

easyJet launches easyJet holidays with a logo jet

easyJet has launched its own holiday arm amid concerns that the British public will be put off booking a trip with a company famed for its budget approach to air travel.

easyJet holidays went live on Thursday, November 28, 2019, selling packages to 5,000 hotels in more than 100 destinations, predominantly in Europe. Each booking comes with 23kg checked baggage per customer and transfers, where available.

For this reason the pictured easyJet A320 G-EZOA has received a special livery with “easyjet holidays” titles and special decals on the rear fuselage.

easyJet made this announcement:

easyJet on November 28 launched a new holiday business aimed at shaking up the sector with flexible, great-value holidays to handpicked hotels across Europe.

UK customers can book Europe’s most loved hotels, together with any easyJet flight, on one platform. This will help to reduce the seven hours holidaymakers spend on average searching for a holiday, according to research by the new holiday company.

easyJet holidays will offer lots of peak-time holiday availability and more weekend flying than anyone else. All holiday bookings will include 23kg hold baggage per person, offering great value and extra ease, especially with families in mind, and beach holidays will also include a transfer.

The business has been built to overcome the things that frustrate travellers the most. This includes the amount of time spent looking for good deals (25%), the added expense of travelling at preferred times (21%) and the lack of flexibility with flight times and dates (17%).

easyJet holidays customers will benefit from ultimate flexibility and can choose exactly how many nights they wish to stay thanks to the strength of the easyJet fleet and its flying schedule. The airline has more than 330 aircraft flying up to 670 routes a day to beach and city locations, resulting in great-value holidays, no matter the duration or time of year.

easyJet holidays is directly contracting hotels for the first time, giving holidaymakers the choice of staying at handpicked hotels. The range of high-quality hotels has been carefully selected by experts, with bespoke collections carefully designed to suit every holiday type. The beach collections include ‘Luxury’, ‘Adult’, ‘Family’ and ‘Undiscovered’, for authentic accommodation off the beaten track. For city breaks, the hotels will be highlighting ‘Luxury’ and ‘Boutique’ collections. Customers can choose from over 5,000 hotels across more than 100 destinations.

The business has also introduced new technology to ensure a quick and seamless customer experience, including integration with easyJet’s app and a completely new website. The new website also features advanced mapping technology, meaning customers can explore a city or resort or start to plan their trip before they book. Key points of interest and walking routes from chosen hotels are highlighted – together with new itinerary guides for a selection of cities – so that customers can start to make the most of their holiday before they travel. The website will also feature TripAdvisor ratings, following research showing that holidaymakers trust these reviews over anything else (40%) when it comes to choosing which hotel to book. It will also use AI to learn and personalise the experience for customers.

Garry Wilson, Chief Executive of easyJet holidays, said: “easyJet has been a pioneer in transforming travel for almost 25 years and we want to bring that to the holidays sector. “We know the way people travel is continuously evolving; we know customers want flexibility on when and how they holiday; we know customers want flexibility on when and how they holiday; we know they want to be able to easily pick a hotel to suit their needs and we know they want a hassle-free booking process. We’re really excited to help meet these needs with the launch of our new modern and relevant holidays business.”

Javier Rodriguez reporting from Spain.

Top Copyright Photo: easyJet holidays (easyJet UK) Airbus A320-214 WL G-EZOA (msn 6412) PMI (Javier Rodriguez). Image: 948408.

easyJet (UK) aircraft slide show:

easyJet announces a new domestic route from Edinburgh to Birmingham

easyJet has announced a new route between Edinburgh and Birmingham. The domestic city connection will operate 13 times a week throughout the year, with flights launching on March 29, 2020.

Over 180,000 passengers are expected to use the new service during the first 12 months of operation on the airline’s A320 family aircraft, eight of which it currently bases at Edinburgh.

This is the second new Edinburgh route easyJet has announced in as many weeks, following the news that the airline will operate a twice-weekly winter route to Verona in Italy, with the inaugural flight due to take off in December.

The addition of the service to Birmingham doubles the connections that easyJet will now offer between Scotland and the Midlands, following the announcement last month that the airline will operate a new service between Glasgow and Birmingham, which also launches on March 29, 2020 operating 13 times a week.

easyJet is the largest airline in Edinburgh and with the addition of the new Birmingham route will operate up to 582 flights a week across 41 routes.

Video: easyJet : Inside The Cockpit Series 2 – Episode 3

We meet the pilots flying out of two of easyJet’s regional bases: Manchester and Newcastle and we join Senior First Officer Iris De Kan on her mission to become a Captain.

Airbus delivers first FANS-C equipped A320 to easyJet

Airbus has delivered the first *FANS-C equipped A320 aircraft to easyJet. In the frame of Europe’s SESAR Air Traffic Management (ATM) research program, this aircraft – and others to follow – will take part in the Airbusled project: “Demonstration of air traffic management improvements Generated by 4D Initial Trajectory Information Sharing” (DIGITS) which will demonstrate the sharing of an aircraft’s predicted trajectory data with air traffic control (ATC).

Milestone marks the start of SESAR FANS-C demonstration by seven airlines
100 aircraft with FANS-C to demonstrate 4D initial trajectory sharing in Europe

FANS-C technology will enable airlines to optimise their aircraft’s trajectories and make traffic flows more fluid and aircraft speed easier to manage, which will help them to save fuel and reduce noise. In particular, the sharing of predicted trajectories with ATC controllers will enable smooth aircraft sequencing on approach and in the “Terminal Maneuvering Area”.

Hugh McConnellogue, Group Head of Network Operations at easyJet said: “We are very pleased to be the first airline to receive this new FANS-C technology in our Airbus aircraft – and to try it for real in the SESAR demonstration. Our early hands-on experience already indicates that it promises to be an important enabler to increase the efficiency, safety, and on-time performance of our expanding operations – especially in the congested European airspace.”

Jean-Brice Dumont, Executive Vice President of Engineering, Airbus Commercial Aircraft said: “We congratulate easyJet on the delivery of the first FANS-C equipped Airbus aircraft, which marks the start of this very large demonstration of 4D initial trajectory sharing across Europe.” He adds: “We are proud to lead this SESAR project and to play our part in helping ATM respond to the increase in air traffic volume while enhancing safety, and to bring about a positive environmental impact thanks to a more efficient ATM system.”

From now until mid-2020 seven European airlines, which are all taking part in DIGITS, will progressively equip up to 100 of their A320 Family aircraft with the FANS-C technology. The “Very Large Demonstration” (VLD) will last more than a year and collect data from over 20,000 revenue flights, allowing stakeholders to demonstrate benefits of this technology during live day-to-day operations.

Paving the way for start of the DIGITS operational phase and to ultimately deploy this technology across Europe and the rest of the world, Airbus achieved the world’s first certification of FANS-C ‘4D’ avionics on a commercial aircraft in November 2018 – the initial aircraft type being the A320 Family. Moreover, to complement the airborne FANS-C technology, air navigation service providers (ANSPs) throughout Europe will develop the respective ground ATC tools.

SESAR = “Single European Sky ATM Research”

*FANS-C is facilitated with two key components: “Automatic Dependent Surveillance Contract” (ADS-C) and “Controller-Pilot Data Link Communication” (CPDLC). ADS-C enables the automatic or on-demand transmission to air traffic control of the aircraft’s complete predicted four-dimensional aircraft trajectory (3D + time), while CPDLC facilitates the digital uplink of ATC orders and clearances. The benefits of FANS-C include: More accurate flight plans; more optimised trajectory computation and acceptance processes; better alignment of airlines’ and ATM planned trajectories; enhancement of aircraft traffic predictions and improvement of demand/capacity network calculations.

The seven airlines taking part in the DIGITS program comprise: Air France; British Airways; easyJet; Iberia; Novair; Thomas Cook; and Wizz Air.

For FANS-C capability on-board an A320 Family aircraft, the equipment required includes a new Data Link router (ATSU), an upgraded Flight Management System (FMS) and “DCDU” Data Link compatible cockpit displays. FANS-C will be first available on the A320 Family and subsequently on all other Airbus programs.

easyJet orders additional 17 Airbus A320neo aircraft

Airbus has reached an agreement with easyJet that extends the airline’s fleet plans into 2023, exercising purchase rights to firm orders for 17 A320neo aircraft.

This takes its combined order for the NEO to 147 (including 30 A321neo) and means easyJet has ordered 468 A320 Family aircraft to date.

The aircraft are configured with 186 seats in a single class configuration and powered by CFM International LEAP engines.

easyJet currently operates a fleet of 316 A320 Family including 17 A320neo and three A321neo, making it the world’s largest airline operator of Airbus’ single aisle aircraft. easyJet serves over 130 European airports in some 31 countries operating over 1,000 routes.

The A320neo family is the world’s best-selling single aisle aircraft with more than 6,200 orders from over 100 customers since its launch in 2010. It incorporates latest technologies including new generation engines and Sharklet wing tip devices, which together deliver more than 15% in fuel savings from day one and 20% by 2020 with further cabin innovations. The A320neo also offers significant environmental performance with nearly 50% reduction in noise footprint compared to previous generation aircraft.

Top Copyright Photo (all others by easyJet): easyJet (UK) Airbus A320-251N WL G-UZHB (msn 7705) (NEO) ZRH (Rolf Wallner). Image: 943811.

easyJet aircraft slide show:

easyJet celebrates 15% of new entrant pilots being female with its 20% by 2020 target firmly in sight

easyJet has announced that it has reached a key milestone in its ambition to attract 20% of new pilots joining the airline to be women by 2020, having achieved a new high of 15% of new entrants to the airline being female, over the past financial year.

It comes at a time when only 5% of all pilots worldwide are female, according to the International Society of Women Airline Pilots. Of that, just over 450 of them have achieved the rank of captain – which means that almost every female commercial airline captain could fit onto an A380 aircraft.

When we launched the initiative to attract more women into a career as a pilot in October 2015, women only made up 6% of easyJet’s new pilot intake. As a result of the campaign in 2016, easyJet had doubled the intake to 12% and has been increasing ever since towards its ambitious target of 20% by 2020. When we set out the goal we expected that 20% would equate to 50 female pilots, owing to our growth, we have attracted more than 50 female pilots this year and now have more than 200 female pilots flying for easyJet.

Johan Lundgren, easyJet CEO, commented:

“It’s hugely encouraging to now see that of the new entrant pilots we have attracted over the past year that 15% are now female and that the ambitious goal of 20% is in our sights and we don’t plan to stop there! We continue to work hard to encourage more women to join this hugely rewarding profession and from a starting point of 6% in 2015 to 15% this year is a real achievement.

“As well as encouraging applications from women now, we also recognise we need to start young so that we can be simultaneously changing perceptions of the career and so improving the gender balance of the profession for years to come. That is why our pilots have completed more than 100 school visits last year and we signed up to sponsor the Girlguiding Aviation badge for Brownies to get girls interested in flight at an early age.

“I firmly believe that no other airline is doing more on this issue.”

Julie Westhorp, Chairman of the British Women Pilots’ Association (BWPA) commented:

“The BWPA are delighted that easyJet are maintaining the momentum in encouraging women to consider a career in aviation. Also to see that their Amy Johnson Initiative is beginning to show results. Their pilots continue to support our outreach work to encourage young people, male and female, to raise their aspirations and to change the perceptions of teachers and parents to realise that becoming a pilot is an achievable and rewarding career, whatever gender. With the global shortage of pilots there is no better time for airlines to realise that by encouraging women to apply they are expanding their recruitment pool to recruit the best person for the role, as evidence and history clearly shows that being a pilot is not a male prerogative.”

Earlier this year Captain David Morgan, Director of Flight Operations at easyJet, was named as an ‘Agent of Change’ by Management Today and the Women’s Business Council for leading real transformation at easyJet and in the aviation industry through easyJet’s Amy Johnson Flying Initiative.

In FY19 easyJet will recruit 460 new pilots to meet record demands for the airline for a third consecutive year, as its European network continues to grow. Opportunities range from cadet pilots starting their career to experienced co-pilots and captains from other airlines and the military.

Photo: easyJet.

easyJet and Virgin Atlantic become partners

easyJet has today made this announcement:

easyJet, Europe’s leading airline, has today announced that it has signed up Virgin Atlantic as a new airline partner to its unique connections service ‘Worldwide by easyJet’

This means that from today easyJet customers can seamlessly connect through London Gatwick Airport between easyJet and Virgin Atlantic flights. This opens up new destination options via ‘Worldwide by easyJet’ which could see customers connecting from the likes of Barcelona through to Orlando and Edinburgh to Las Vegas. Other Virgin Atlantic destinations now available also include Las Vegas, Antigua and St Lucia.

Worldwide by easyJet has been consistently growing, with more than 4,000 unique O&Ds which have been booked in combination with partner airlines.

Johan Lundgren, easyJet Chief Executive Officer said:

“We are really pleased to welcome Virgin Atlantic to ‘Worldwide by easyJet’. Given we both serve many popular destinations from London Gatwick, we are confident their addition to Worldwide will be very popular with our customers.

“We have been delighted with the appetite of partner airports and airlines to expand Worldwide across our network and continue to broaden our focus to launch more airline partners and add connectivity to more of our biggest airports. Tens of millions of connecting passengers travel each year with journeys which begin or end in Europe.

“Because of easyJet’s reputation for great customer service and our strong positions at Europe’s leading airports, a large number of different airlines as well as airports have been asking to work with easyJet for some time and we expect to announce more partners in the coming months.”

Craig Kreeger, CEO at Virgin Atlantic commented;

“Virgin Atlantic is committed to working with the best possible global partners, to offer industry leading choice and connections for our customers. easyJet’s unbeatable Gatwick network, combined with a shared customer centric ethos, makes them the ideal fit for us. We’re delighted that customers across the UK and Europe will be able to enjoy more choice when connecting onto our flights through Gatwick and we look forward to welcoming them on board very soon.”

This addition compliments easyJet’s existing relationships with Norwegian, WestJet, Thomas Cook Airlines, Corsair, La Compagnie, Aurigny and Loganair who are already part of ‘Worldwide by easyJet’.

Earlier this month easyJet announced that Singapore Airlines and its low cost subsidiary airline Scoot will join the ‘Worldwide by easyJet’ global connections service, connecting easyJet customers with South East Asia with Singapore Airlines via Milan Malpensa airport and with Scoot through Berlin Tegel. The service is expected to be available within the coming months.

easyJet will continue sign up other airlines to ‘Worldwide by easyJet’ during 2018, with talks progressing with middle and far-eastern carriers amongst others and the airline also plans to expand to other key easyJet airports in Europe.

Worldwide by easyJet explained

‘Worldwide by easyJet’ launched in September 2017 enabling customers to connect easyJet flights through London Gatwick to long haul flights, with launch airline partners WestJet and Norwegian. This quickly expanded to Thomas Cook Airlines, Corsair, La Compagnie and Loganair and the connections platform was extended to Milan Malpensa airport in December 2017.

In March 2018 easyJet announced that it was extending its ‘Worldwide by easyJet’ connections platform to Berlin Tegel, Venice Marco Polo, Amsterdam Schiphol, Paris Charles De Gaulle and Orly and Edinburgh airports. Venice and Berlin Tegel are now fully operational meaning that, combined with the connections already announced through London Gatwick and Milan Malpensa, over half of the airline’s flights – and 53 million easyJet customers a year – will be able to connect to airline partner services and other easyJet flights in a single booking through easyJet’s digital booking portal.

It is the first global airline connections service by a European low fares airline. Worldwide by easyJet offers self-connect and sales partnerships through a digital, virtual hub simply and efficiently.

easyJet has leadership positions at more of Europe’s major airports and flies on more of Europe’s 100 largest routes than any other airline which makes it the most attractive European short haul airline partner. The introduction of this disruptive product opens up new 70m market segment for easyJet.

All of this connectivity has been enabled by technology partner Dohop whose innovative platform allows easyJet customers to book connections and forward flights on easyJet.com. Worldwide by easyJet will also allow easyJet passengers to connect with other easyJet flights through partner airports.

Worldwide by easyJet does not impact easyJet’s punctuality, its asset utilisation or operating model. The airline will not hold flights for connecting passengers. Worldwide by easyJet is subject to a 2 hour 30 minute ‘Minimum Connection Time’, which will give customers plenty of time to transfer between flights and/or terminals. Should a passenger miss a connecting flight they will be transferred to the next available flight.

Photo: easyJet.

easyJet takes delivery of its first Airbus A321neo

easyJet has celebrated the delivery of its first A321neo aircraft, marking the milestone with a flight into Farnborough International Airshow on July 18, 2018. The new type previously went into revenue service on July 16, 2018.

easyJet CEO Johan Lundgren was joined by UK Secretary of State for Transport Chris Grayling, Airbus CEO Tom Enders and President of CFM International Gaël Méheust at Farnborough to celebrate the delivery of the A321neo which – with a 235 seat configuration – is easyJet’s largest capacity aircraft now in its fleet. The aircraft was flown into the airshow by an all-female flight crew.

Just over a year ago easyJet announced an agreement with Airbus to convert 30 existing A320neo orders to the A321neo aircraft with a 235-seat configuration, part of the existing easyJet Airbus agreement dating from 2013.

The first easyJet A321neo is based at London Gatwick Airport and will fly to popular destinations such as Malaga, Alicante and Palma. The aircraft has around 30% more seats on board compared to an A320 and 50% when replacing an A319.

The A321neos are powered by CFM’s LEAP-1A engine which means the aircraft will deliver up to 15 percent savings in fuel burn and CO2 emissions, and a reduced noise footprint of 50 percent on take-off and landing phase, compared with previous generations of the aircraft. The A321neos comply with ICAO Chapter 14 regulations and their NOx emissions will also meet the ICAO CAEP/8 regulations.

Since the delivery of easyJet’s first Airbus A320 family aircraft 15 years ago the airline has taken over 300 new aircraft deliveries, which means that easyJet has now grown to operate Europe’s largest A320 family fleet. With 100 neo aircraft on order the airline is one of Europe’s largest customers for this revolutionary new aircraft.

easyJet’s total fleet on July 18, 2018 comprises 308 aircraft, split between 156-seat Airbus A319s, 180-seat A320s, 186-seat A320s and now the 235-seat A321.

The airline’s A319s are being progressively replaced by A320s, with 40 already replaced.

easyJet has also completed the up-gauging of 49 of its existing 180-seat A320s to 186 seats. In the last six months easyJet has taken delivery of nine A320neo aircraft which provide a per seat cost saving of 7% to 8% compared to the A319 (and an equivalent improvement) through economies of scale, efficiencies in crew, ownership, fuel and maintenance.

Over the coming years easyJet will continue to reduce operating cost per seat and its passengers’ carbon footprint by improving its fleet mix and ownership structure.

Since 2000 easyJet has reduced its carbon emissions per passenger, per kilometre by over 32%. Its current target is a 10% reduction from its 2016 financial year performance by 2022, which would be a 38% improvement from 2000. In the 2017 financial year easyJet’s carbon emissions per passenger kilometre were 78.62 grams, down from 79.98g per passenger km in the prior financial year.

Photo: easyJet.