Tag Archives: easyJet

EasyJet to expand at Milan Malpensa, Naples and Venice and reduce operations at Rome Fiumicino

EasyJet (easyJet.com) (London-Luton) today announced a strengthening of its Italian strategy through expanding its bases in Italy at Milan Malpensa and Naples and the opening of a new base in Venice from April‎ 2016. The airline plans to support this expansion by redeploying aircraft and crew from Rome Fiumicino.

EasyJet CEO Carolyn McCall‎ outlined the airline’s plans:

“Italy is a key strategic country for easyJet and our plans for 2016 announced today will expand our presence at Milan, Naples and Venice, where there are more opportunities for long term sustainable and profitable growth, while ensuring we continue to connect Rome Fiumicino with Europe in a way that best reflects passenger demand.

“Milan, Naples and Venice are all centres of important Italian economic regions. Each has high levels of passenger demand from leisure as well as business passengers and all have demand for flights both into and out of Italy.

“Our expansion in these three airports will bring thousands of direct and indirect jobs in each region and will ensure easyJet remains the largest airline at each airport giving all three cities the best network connecting them with the rest of Europe.

“At a time when there are significant profitable growth opportunities for easyJet across Europe we are continuing to make a very significant investment in Italy. easyJet has grown steadily in Italy in recent years in terms of investment and jobs and will base 29 aircraft in the country next year, employing over 1000 pilots, cabin crew and other staff and supporting thousands more direct and indirect jobs.”

Barcelona

EasyJet also announced that it is to open a new base in Barcelona from February 2016, basing three Airbus aircraft there. Barcelona has always been a key network point for easyJet and the base opening consolidates easyJet’s strong position at Barcelona carrying almost three million passengers a year to and from 14 airports across Europe.

With aircraft based at the airport business travellers will be able to benefit from earlier departures as well as an increased number of flights on existing routes connecting to primary airports in Europe such as London, Paris, Geneva and Milan.

Venice

EasyJet will open a base at Venice Marco Polo Airport starting from April 2016. With four Airbus aircraft based at the airport, easyJet will increase its contribution to the local economy by providing 150 local jobs for pilots and cabin crew.

Venice has for some time been a key network point for EasyJet, having operated flights into and out of the city since 1998. The airline has increased the number of passengers carried by an average rate of 15% per year over the last five years. easyJet currently flies to Venice from 15 primary airports across Europe – such as London Gatwick, Amsterdam and Paris Charles de Gaulle – and is the largest airline at Marco Polo Airport.

As well as being a world famous tourist destination the region is Italy’s third largest economy and 28% of easyJet’s 1.6 million passengers on flights to and from Venice are travelling on business. This will be further enhanced when aircraft are based at the airport as business travellers will be able to benefit from early morning departures.

Milan Malpensa

Milan Malpensa is already easyJet’s second largest base with 18 aircraft and will receive three more from April 2016, providing over 100 new jobs for pilots and cabin crew. This will strengthen EasyJet’s existing status as the largest airline at Milan Malpensa and gives the airline a strong strategic position serving Italy’s richest metropolitan area of some 9 million people with one of the country’s highest GDP.

Naples

EasyJet opened its new base in Naples in 2014 and is now firmly established as the largest airline at the airport. Naples is southern Italy’s largest city and the third largest in the country.

EasyJet already bases three aircraft in Naples and will base one more plane there from April 2016 providing 35 more jobs for pilots and cabin crew. Naples is a top European destination both for tourism – the city being listed a World Heritage Site by UNESCO – and for business with a wide network of more than 260,000 companies and 2.6 million business travellers flying from Naples every year.

Rome Fiumicino

The Rome Fiumicino base is delivering lower returns than EasyJet’s other bases and the new services and routes which will be operated as a result of this redeployment will better match easyJet’s customers’ needs and deliver higher returns for the airline.‎

The worsening performance of the Rome Fiumicino base has been driven by high airport passenger charges, which have more than doubled since 2012, and will be burdened by further above inflation increases in the coming years. In addition, Rome Fiumicino airport provides a poor passenger experience which has led to low levels of punctuality and customer satisfaction which the recent capacity increases have exacerbated.

As a result of the redeployment EasyJet will cease basing crew and aircraft at Rome Fiumicino from April 2016. There will be no job losses as a result of this decision as easyJet will be offering Rome Fiumicino based crew a transfer to our other Italian bases. The airline will offer individual relocation plans and support for all employees. easyJet hopes that as many of its crew as possible take up this offer.

EasyJet remains committed to connecting Italy with the rest of Europe and will continue to fly around 2 million passengers to and from Rome Fiumicino next year out of its bases across its network. This decision does not reflect in any way on easyJet’s Rome Fiumicino based people or the commitment and effort they have made to deliver a friendly customer experience and high operational standards.

Copyright Photo: Keith Burton/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A319-111 G-EZDJ (msn 3544) painted in the new 2015 livery arrives at Southend near London.

EasyJet (UK) aircraft slide show:

Air France-KLM, easyJet, IAG, Lufthansa Group and Ryanair call for a new EU Aviation Strategy

The CEOs of Europe’s five largest airline groups – Air France-KLM, easyJet, International Airlines Group (IAG), Lufthansa Group and Ryanair – met collectively for the first time today (June 17) and agreed to work together to lobby for the development of a new EU Aviation Strategy that will support growth and jobs across Europe, strengthen the sector and give Europe’s passengers lower fares and more choice.

The meeting took place (in Brussels) in response to the new EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc’s consultation on a new EU Aviation Strategy. The five agreed a vision for this strategy that would match the revolution in aviation that the liberalization of Europe’s airline sector created a generation ago, through the creation of the internal aviation market.

The five airlines identified four measures that would support the Commission‘s objectives of enhancing the competitiveness of the European air transport industry both at European and international level, supporting growth and jobs across Europe and which would help consumers through the provision of more flights and lower fares.
These measures are:

The development of an EU Aviation strategy with a plan for a simple efficient regulatory structure, which would strengthen the competitiveness of European airlines, ensure jobs and growth through innovation (e.g. Horizon 2020), protect consumer interests and promote more efficiency to reduce costs.

Lowering the cost of the EU’s airports by ensuring that monopoly airports are effectively regulated; ensuring that passengers receive the full benefit of the commercial revenues which they create at airports; and that security charges are efficient. This could be achieved by reforming the Airport Charges Directive.

Delivering reliable and efficient airspace by reducing the cost of ATC provision; ensuring that ATC strikes do not cause disruption to passengers across Europe; resetting the Single European Sky strategy by focusing on using new technology to make efficiency savings; and using SESAR funding to drive compliance with the Single Sky framework.
Stimulating more economic activity and jobs by creating the right regulatory environment, removing passenger taxes and unreasonable environmental taxes.

The five CEOs – Alexandre de Juniac, Carolyn McCall, Willie Walsh, Carsten Spohr and Michael O’Leary – outlined their vision:

“Europe’s airlines form the most competitive sector in aviation with a diverse mix of carriers offering competition and choice to consumers.This is the first time we have set aside our competitive battles to highlight the importance of a new European Aviation Strategy.

The liberalization of aviation in Europe in the 1990’s, creating a fully liberalized single market with a comprehensive common regulatory framework 18 years ago, strongly enhanced competition across Europe.As a result, consumers have benefited with substantially lower fares and more routes across Europe and to the rest of the world. At the same time, EU airlines have maintained leading safety standards. The range and quality of services have increased and airline costs have fallen by 1 – 2% per year for the last two decades.

We believe that this decline should now be matched by a reduction in those costs which airlines do not control themselves. “As the new Transport Commissioner prepares a new Aviation Strategy for Europe she must drive more competition, encourage more efficiency and help reduce costs in other parts of our industry (such as monopoly airports and Air Traffic Control providers) and reduce the tax burden on passengers.”

Aviation is a proven driver of economic growth and jobs. The proposed measures will create many hundreds of thousands of jobs – particularly for young people, at a time of high youth unemployment in countries such as Italy or Spain – and increase Europe’s GDP. The group will write to the EU Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc asking for these measures to be put in place.

Alongside the proposed policy positions the five CEO’s confirmed their support for several key principles and action items which should underpin EU aviation policy. The most important of these is the commitment to safety and ensuring that safety standards are developed based on a risk based scientific assessment.

The CEOs confirmed their support for the liberalization of the whole aviation value chain and for pro-competition policy and regulation within the EU. They also confirmed their opposition to the provision of State-aid, as a general principle, to airlines and airports. They agreed that EU and national regulation and policies should support the efficient delivery of services, and that this includes the need for efficient operations to minimise the environmental impact of aviation. The importance of balanced consumer rights was also underlined; EU and national policies need to ensure that consumer rights are respected.

The CEOs agreed to work together to encourage the Commission and EU member states to take up the proposed measures. The five airlines agreed that airline representation in Brussels today is not as effective as it could be – with six airline representative organisations – and agreed to explore possible forms of future representation.

The five airlines between them carried a total of 420 million passengers in 2014, accounting for half of the passenger journeys in Europe.

EasyJet swings to a six-month profit

EasyJet (easyJet.com) (UK) (London-Luton) reversed its financial fortunes and produced a six-month profit (before taxies) (ending on March 31) of £7 million ($7.8 million). This compares favorably with a loss of £53 million ($59.6 million) in the same period a year ago.

The airline issued these additional details:

Strategic Progress:

Drive demand, conversion and yields across Europe

• Total revenue per seat increased by 2.6% year-on-year on a constant currency basis, and by 0.2% per seat on a reported basis, to £54.91 driven, in part, by the disciplined allocation of capacity, improvement in load factor, strong October trading, timing of Easter and performance of allocated seating.
• Average load factors increased by 0.7 percentage points to 89.7% whilst capacity grew by 3.6% to 32.2 million seats.

Maintain cost advantage

• Cost per seat excluding fuel grew by 2.9% on a constant currency basis and decreased by 1.4% on a reported basis to £38.66. The increase in cost per seat was driven by anticipated increases in charges at regulated airports mainly in Germany and Italy, increased disruption costs in the second quarter and costs associated with building a resilient operation ahead of new crew base openings.
• easyJet lean delivered £21 million of sustainable savings in the six months to March 31, 2015.
• From May 2016 all future deliveries of A320 aircraft to have 186 seats; existing A320 180 seat fleet to be retrofitted starting in winter 2016. 186 seat A320 expected to deliver a cost per seat saving of 2% vs. a 180 seat A320.
• Component support contract signed with AJW Group to drive savings in maintenance costs from October 2015.

Build strong number 1 and 2 network positions

• easyJet opened new bases in Amsterdam and Porto bringing the total number of bases to 26.

Disciplined use of capital

•In the six months to March 31, 2015, easyJet returned £180 million or 45.4 pence per share to shareholders through the payment of an ordinary dividend at an increased payout ratio of 40% of profit after tax for the year ended September 30, 2014.

• easyJet ended the first half of the financial year with cash and money market deposits of £976 million, a decrease of £93 million against last year. Net cash as at 31 March 2015 was £416 million compared to £449 million at March 31, 2014.

Commenting on the results, Carolyn McCall, easyJet Chief Executive said:

“easyJet has delivered a record performance in the first half of the year by continuing to deliver its strategy of making travel easy and affordable for passengers. The profit in the half reflects the delivery of our customer focused revenue initiatives and a strong finish to the ski season as well as the benefit we received from the lower fuel price and favourable foreign exchange movements.

As we enter the important summer season forward bookings are in line with last year and as we predicted passengers are benefitting as fares fall to reflect a more competitive operating environment and lower fuel costs. easyJet continues to be well positioned to grow revenue and profit this year, delivering sustainable returns to shareholders due to its compelling network, low cost base and strong balance sheet.”

Analysis of the results and a comment from Ken Odeluga, a senior market analyst at www.cityindex.co.uk

EasyJet has swung to a net profit at the typically weak half-way stage of the airline financial year and I think this can only emphasise that its making solid progress against its only true rival, at the moment, Ryanair.

It has edged the bar slightly higher against RYA with a 7 basis point extension of its lead on load factor to 89.7% vs. RYA latterly on 88% (Dec.). EZJ has now having maintained an average passenger yield advantage for almost every interim period since 2012.

Naturally, landing in the black for the first half bodes especially well for the rest of EZJ’s financial year, although despite the airline saying the outlook is broadly in line for the rest of the year, it will not have the advantage of fuel prices quite as low as they were in the prior period, therefore there’s scope for full-year forecasts to be scaled back—though only moderately in my view.

However as the market opened this morning it decided to look past these strengths and focus on the disruption EZJ warned of a few days ago from French air traffic control industrial action.
I do believe that the airline has been suitably, but perhaps overly cautious on the magnitude of impact these will have on the third quarter, though of course further qualification may come in the call (0930BST)

Copyright Photo below: Antony J. Best/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A319-111 G-EZDA (msn 3413) prepares to land at London (Gatwick) painted in the new 2015 livery.

EasyJet aircraft slide show:

easyJet celebrates the delivery of its 250th Airbus aircraft

EasyJet (UK) (stylized as easyJet) (London-Luton) and Airbus celebrated their successful partnership yesterday (April 22) at a ceremony in Hamburg (Finkenwerder) to mark the delivery the airline’s 250th Airbus A320 family aircraft. Carolyn McCall, easyJet CEO, Jean-Paul Ebanga, CFM International President and CEO, Didier Evrard, Airbus EVP and Head of Programs, and Christopher Buckley, Airbus EVP Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific were present at the event.

To celebrate the 250th delivery, easyJet unveiled its newest A320 with a unique livery featuring 250 miniature aircraft (below). As with other recent deliveries to easyJet, the A320 is equipped with the latest technology and fuel-saving Sharklets.

The airline flies 234 aircraft on more than 750 routes to over 130 airports across 33 countries.
easyJet operates Europe’s largest and the world’s fourth largest Airbus single aisle fleet. Since easyJet took delivery of its first Airbus aircraft (an A319) in September 2003, Airbus has delivered an aircraft on average every 16 days since the first delivery

EasyJet has 158 aircraft currently on order, and in terms of total aircraft orders is Airbus’ third biggest airline customer. Currently easyJet fly a fleet of 85 A320s (180 seats) and 149 A319s (156 seats).

Photos: Airbus. The pictured Airbus A320-214 D-AVVL (msn 6572) with the special emblems became G-EZOL on the handover on April 22.

EasyJet aircraft slide show:

New TV advertisements from easyJet

Two new TV advertisements from easyJet (UK).

Norwegian and easyJet adopt a “two-person” cockpit rule

Norwegian Air Shuttle (Norwegian.com) (Oslo) and easyJet (UK) (London-Luton) have become early adopters of a new “two persons” cockpit rule in the wake of the devastating news of what caused Germanwings flight 4U 9525 to crash in the French Alps. The rule is already in place in the United States.

In addition, Deutsche Welle is reporting “Germany’s BDL aviation federation announced late Thursday that airlines such as Lufthansa and Airberlin intended to immediately enact the two-person rule in consultation with the Federal Office of Civil Aviation.”

Read the full report: CLICK HERE

Above Copyright Photo: Keith Burton/AirlinersGallery.com. In celebration of the new 26th base at Amsterdam, easyJet has introduced this new Amsterdam logo jet on Airbus A319-111 G-EZDN (msn 3608) painted at Southend. The new theme was rolled out of the paint shop on March 25.

In other news, overshadowed by the stunning Germanwings crash investigation announcements, easyJet yesterday (March 26) celebrated the opening of its new base at Francisco de Sá Carneiro Airport in Porto. Three new UK routes from Manchester, Bristol and London Luton Airports to the new Porto base will be launched this summer.

Flights from Bristol to Porto will commence on April 19 and operate on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

Porto is the 25th base of easyJet’s network and the airline will also inaugurate its 26th base in Amsterdam on March 31.

easyJet started its operations in Portugal in 1999 and flies now to 48 destinations in Europe being the third largest airline in the country with 12% market share and more than 4 million passengers carried in 2014. easyJet flies to Faro, Funchal, Porto and Lisbon and from 29 March a service will start connecting the capital with Ponta Delgada in Azores.

Top Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. Boeing 737-8JP WL LN-NIF (msn 39434) with Finnish writer and social activist Minna Canth on the tail arrives at Tenerife Sur.

Norwegian aircraft slide show:

easyJet aircraft slide show:

EasyJet adds routes from London Gatwick and Stansted, presents its “Vision for European Aviation”

EasyJet UK) (easyJet.com) (London-Luton) has announced two new routes from its London Gatwick and Stansted bases for the summer of 2015.

A new twice-weekly route between Stansted and Monastir, Tunisia will begin on June 2 on Tuesdays and Saturdays.

The new twice-weekly routes from London Gatwick are to Preveza, Greece, beginning on May 17, and Pula, Croatia, beginning on June 23.

Sophie Dekkers, easyJet’s UK director, told Telegraph Travel that the increased connections were because “Greece in particular continues to prove a popular destination” and that easyJet is to be the only airline offering direct scheduled flights from the UK to Preveza, a relatively unvisited area of northwestern Greece.

In other news, easyJet on February 26 launched its Vision for European Aviation calling on the EU, Governments and regulators to improve competitiveness in European aviation.

The airline continued;

The European Commission is currently working on a new Aviation Package and easyJet believes that this is the time to address some long-standing issues such as the reform of airport charges and Single European Skies.

Passengers have hugely benefited from the liberalisation of the airline sector which led to increased competition. Airlines have reduced their fares by 1-2% per year on average over the last 20 years but these reductions have not been mirrored across other aviation sectors in Europe such as airports and air space management. ‎

There is no effective control of charges and services at many monopoly airports across Europe, with consumers paying more than they should. For those specific airports, easyJet believe that tougher regulation and a revised Airport Charges Directive is needed.‎

New research by Frontier Economics published today shows that tougher regulation of charges at 15 of Europe’s largest monopoly airports would save passengers €1.48 billion, increasing total one-way passenger trips by 12.2 million, which in turn would increase consumer and tourism spending, and boost trade. In total, the overall impact of better airports regulation would be an increase of GDP in the EEA area of €37bn (+0.23%) or around 470,000 jobs.

Just four key changes would provide these benefits:

• the move from dual till to single till regulation – when all revenues, both aeronautical and commercial, are taken into account when setting charges
• the reduction of airports’ return on capital by just 0.5%
• an increase in airports’ operating efficiency by 10% – reflecting the higher efficiency gains made by airlines, and
• the removal of the subsidy of transfer passengers – the charges for whom are often half that of origin and destination passengers.

easyJet CEO Carolyn McCall outlined easyJet’s views in meetings with new European Transport Commissioner, Violeta Bulc, a range of MEPs with an interest in transport and in a speech to the European Aviation Club.

In the speech Carolyn McCall called on Europe to put passengers at the heart of decision making;

“The EU plays a crucial role in supporting European aviation and easyJet is a shining example of that – without the liberalisation of European skies we would not exist in our current form.‎

“Europe is currently debating which policy framework to put in place, at a national and EU level, to promote the competitiveness of EU aviation.

“In order to get the best outcome for consumers, we believe that this framework should be based on fair competition, freedom of choice, and with passengers at the heart of policy making. We are calling on EU policy makers to revise the Airport Charges Directive and to rethink how we deliver Single European Skies.

“If we just tackled these two issues, they would improve the efficiency of our industry, drive down fares for consumers and create billions of Euros of GDP, equivalent to hundreds of thousands of jobs.”‎

EasyJet’s Vision for Europe‎

EasyJet’s Vision for Europe outlines the passenger journey, from booking, to the airport, to in-flight and arrival which explains at each step of the way our views on the right policy framework that can make travel easier and more affordable for all of our passengers. In addition to airport charges the document highlights four other key issues which if properly addressed would bring benefits to airlines and their passengers.

Single European Sky

EasyJet proposes a rethink based on three principles:

1) A pragmatic approach to address the deep rooted underlying concerns of key stakeholders. For example, there will be no compulsory redundancies amongst air traffic controllers. Airspace sovereignty is guaranteed and Member States can ensure they have control over their airspace
2) Governance is shared, so airspace users have an equal seat at the table.
3) SES should be on an opt-in basis, but with EU funding only available for those who opt in‎.

Social dimension‎

At easyJet we aim to be a good corporate citizen and to operate a model of responsible profitability – that means that we employ people on local contracts and in line with local conditions and legislation, according to where they are based. We also work with trade unions right across Europe.

The current framework enables easyJet to do the right thing but this should be enforced equally and fairly across countries.

Ground handling services

There is not enough competition on ground handling services which means passengers still pay too much and do not receive the right level of service.

Slot trading

It is critical that airlines are allowed to trade slots to ensure they are used as efficiently as possible.

Copyright Photo: Gerd Beilfuss/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A319-111 G-EZDK (msn 3555) arrives in Hamburg dressed in the “new look” 2015 livery.

EasyJet (UK) aircraft slide show:

EasyJet today unveils its new livery

EasyJet (easyJet.com) (London-Luton) today (February 3) unveiled its new livery on the pictured Airbus A319-111 G-EZDE (msn 3426). The airline issued this statement:

EasyJet, the UK’s largest airline, has launched a new aircraft livery – the first change to the look of the airline’s iconic white and orange fleet since easyJet.com replaced the call center number on the fuselage in 1998.

There are two main design changes. EasyJet’s trademark orange has been extended from the tail fin on to the fuselage to create a larger space for the easyJet logo which is 15% bigger than before.

Secondly, an orange stripe reflecting the design language of easyJet’s advertising has been introduced on to the fuselage. This enables the easyJet logo to be reversed out of that color – in accordance with brand guidelines – and to give the plane a sleek, more modern look.‎ Finally, the “.com” has been dropped.

The airline currently has a fleet of 226 aircraft – a mixture of Airbus A319s and A320s. The new livery will feature on all new easyJet aircraft deliveries from April 2015. EasyJet has 197 Airbus A320 aircraft on order, the majority of which will replace older A319 aircraft currently in the fleet.

In addition, younger planes in easyJet’s fleet will have the new livery applied when they ‎are scheduled to be repainted, typically every six years. Taken together this means 29 aircraft will be flying with the new look by the end of 2015 and 50% of the fleet will sport the new livery by the end of 2017.

A specialist team is needed to repaint an aircraft which takes around seven days on average.

During easyJet’s 19 year history there have been only two aircraft styles. The first, seen in 1995 on easyJet’s first aircraft, was different to anything else flying as it advertised the booking number along the fuselage in giant lettering. The second, which entered service in 1998, displayed easyJet.com across the fuselage which reflected the important move the airline made to online booking.

Photo: EasyJet (UK).

Video: The painting of the first aircraft by easyJet:

EasyJet (UK) aircraft slide show:

http://airlinersgallery.smugmug.com/Airlines-Europe-1/Airlines-Europe-1/EasyJet-UK

EasyJet expects first half losses to fall after growth in sales

EasyJet (UK) (easyJet.com) (London-Luton) expects first half losses to shrink, helped by growing capacity and record number of business passengers in the first quarter.

The economy airline expects losses of between £10 million ($15.1 million) and £30 million ($45.5 million) in the first half of the year, compared with £53 million ($80.4 million) last year. The company also hopes to pass lower fuel costs on to passengers.

Easyjet chief executive Carolyn McCall said in a statement:

“We further strengthened our network in the quarter adding around 500,000 seats, the majority of which are from airports where EasyJet has a number one or number two position,”

“This combined with our new TV ads aimed at business travellers enabled EasyJet to sell record numbers of seats to business travellers in the first quarter,” she added.

Oil prices:

The largest carrier in the UK said it expects to pass fuel cost savings on to passengers, probably cutting around £2 off its average fare.

“EasyJet expects that lower fuel costs will be beneficial for its customers as fares adjust,” it said.

Oil prices have fallen by more than half since the summer, and the firm expects its annual fuel bill to be between £90m and £130m less than it was in the 12 months to 30 September 2014.

Competitor Ryanair (Dublin) is also trying to attract more business travellers, with the Irish carrier adding new routes and boosted capacity, and has made moves to improve its customer service. Its shares hit an all-time high this month after a surge in passenger numbers.

Read the full report from the BBC: CLICK HERE

Assistant Editor Oliver Wilcock reporting from Manchester.

Copyright Photo: SPA/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A320-214 G-EZWV (msn 6177) with Sharklets arrives back at bLondon’s Gatwick Airport.

EasyJet (UK) aircraft slide show:

http://airlinersgallery.smugmug.com/Airlines-Europe-1/Airlines-Europe-1/EasyJet-UK

EasyJet to start flights to the Azores

EasyJet (easyJet.com) (UK) (London-Luton) has announced that it is to commence four-times weekly flights between Lisbon and Ponta Delgada in the Azores as of March 2015. The marketing director for the company’s Portugal operations made the announcement.

José Lopes told journalists in the Azores capital: “Finally we have all the guarantees that we needed for us to be able to announce the opening of the Lisbon-Ponta Delgada route, which will be a reality from the end of March of next year,”

Lopes added that EasyJet will start with a 180-seater Airbus A320 making four flights. He said details of prices would be announced next week.

Report by Assistant Editor Oliver Wilcock from Manchester.

EasyJet (UK) aircraft slide show: