Tag Archives: G-EZBI

easyJet’s new William Shakespeare Airbus A319 logo jet and oldest William Shakespeare are the center points of a new campaign to recognize the famous playwright on the British calendar

EasyJet (UK) (easyJet.com) (London-Luton) as previously reported, painted one of its Airbus A319 with likeness of playwright William Shakespeare. We now know the reason. The airline today (April 2) launched a campaign to get the playwright officially recognized on the British calendar. The airline issued this statement:

Britain’s oldest real life William Shakespeare (below) has today launched a campaign to get the world’s most famous playwright officially recognized in the British calendar.

The 91 year old, from Bristol, was joined by Stratford-upon-Avon MP Nadhim Zahawias. Mr. Zahawias signed the petition to recognize April 23 as the national William Shakespeare Day.

Copyright Photo: EasyJet. Will-I-Am: Britain’s oldest William Shakespeare (above) launches campaign to make April 23 official day of the Bard.

The duo launched the campaign at London’s Gatwick Airport by unveiling a special edition easyJet Airbus A319 (G-EZBI) with an image of William Shakespeare on the fuselage. The airline is backing the bid to get the Bard recognized and is helping to garner the 100,000 signatures necessary for the issue to be debated in parliament and trending online with #Shakesonaplane

Heritage and culture remain one of the key drivers of tourism to the UK (Visit Britain report) and easyJet has arranged a program of free Shakespearean performances at airports across the country to share the playwright’s most famous work. The airline’s special William Shakespeare plane will also operate on flights across easyJet’s network this summer to help promote the UK as one of Europe’s leading cultural hot spots. The campaign for national William Shakespeare Day will culminate on the 450th anniversary of the Bard’s birth this April 23.

William Shakespeare from Bristol, said: “It is such an honor to be chosen to launch this campaign to recognise my namesake. All my life I have been proud to share my name with such an iconic British figure and I think it is important we recognise his achievements with an official day in the calendar.”

Paul Moore, Communications Director for easyJet said: ‎”William Shakespeare is Britain’s most famous author so easyJet is proud to back the bid to make 23 April his national day. We are asking our UK passengers to sign the petition while suggesting to those from the rest of Europe that they visit the land of Shakespeare to learn more about him and see his works performed.

“Our campaign will run during April in our in-flight magazine read by 5 million passengers a month, across thousands of seat back adverts and we will be staging free Shakespearean performances at airports across the UK. Passengers can win free flights by writing a sonnet supporting the campaign and it will be launched with our special Airbus which will carry Shakespeare’s image on the side. Aviation and Shakespearean language combine for the name – Romeo Alpha Juliet.”

Nadhim Zahawi, MP for Stratford-upon-Avon said:

“Is it a Bard, is it a plane? William Shakespeare is one of Britain’s greatest gifts to the world, ‘he was not of an age, but for all time’, and I have long argued this sceptre’d isle should celebrate April 23 as a national holiday. I’m delighted that easyJet have chosen to campaign on this issue – let’s hope we can get it off the runway.”

EasyJet will be collecting signatures and offering free Shakespeare performances at the following airports this month:

• London Gatwick: April 12-13
• London Luton: April 14-15
• Edinburgh: April 14-15
• London Stansted: April 14-15
• Manchester: April 16-17
• Bristol: April 16-17

Top Copyright Photo: Antony J. Best/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A319-111 G-EZBI (msn 3003) is seen departing from Gatwick Airport near London. (all others by EasyJet).

EasyJet (UK):

EasyJet to expand operations at London’s Gatwick Airport after a new seven year agreement with GAL

EasyJet (UK) (London-Luton) has announced that it has agreed a new seven year deal with Gatwick Airport (GAL) from April 2014 which will incentivise the airline to grow at the airport and provide the framework for EasyJet and GAL to further improve customer experience for easyJet’s passengers.

EasyJet plans to continue to grow at Gatwick through increasing our slots and by deploying larger aircraft as EasyJet replaces 156 seat A319s with 180 seat A320s and, from 2017, A320neos. In the next fiscal year (ending in March 2015) alone the airline will increase capacity and passenger numbers by around 10% compared to the previous year.

The agreement has been reached within the new ‘commitments’ framework which will replace the current regulatory regime as confirmed by the CAA last year‎.

EasyJet started flying from London Gatwick Airport in 1999 and now has 57 aircraft based there, operating on 108 routes. The airline has around 1400 cabin crew and 700 pilots operating from the airport.

Copyright Photo: Paul Bannwarth/AirlinersGallery.com. William Shakespeare touches down at EuroAirport serving the Basel/Mulhouse/Freiburg area on the fuselage of Airbus A319-111 G-EZBI (msn 3003).

EasyJet (UK):

EasyJet to launch five new routes from London’s Gatwick Airport

EasyJet (UK) (easyJet.com) (London-Luton), the UK and London Gatwick’s largest airline will see the launch of five new year-round services from London Gatwick this month.

The airline’s inaugural flights to Brussels, Paris (Charles de Gaulle), Jersey, Newcastle and Strasbourg take off for the first time on March 30, 2014.

The frequency of EasyJet’s services between Gatwick and Inverness will also double from one to two return services each day with the launch of EasyJet’s first evening flight from London Gatwick to Inverness and early arrival into London Gatwick. This will further strengthen the airline’s comprehensive network of routes from the airport and is expected to be popular with business travellers.
2.3 million passengers flew easyJet on business in and out of London Gatwick in 2013 and over 800,000 passengers are expected to use the five new services annually. This will increase the number of passengers who fly easyJet to and from the airport by 5% and to a total of 108 destinations to further extend the airline’s ongoing commitment to providing easy and affordable business links across Europe.

Previously on March 19, EasyJet commemorated the deal it agreed to last June with Airbus for 135 Airbus A320 aircraft in Paris, with an official signing ceremony.

EasyJet is the fourth largest airline in Europe with a current fleet of 217 Airbus A319s and A320s and has taken delivery of 245 Airbus aircraft in total. EasyJet’s Airbus order is the largest placed by any European airline to date.

Copyright Photo: Keith Burton/AirlinersGallery.com. EasyJet is saluting William Shakespeare with this newly painted Airbus A319-111 registered G-EZBI (msn 3003). G-EZBI is appropriately named “Romeo Alpha Juliet”.

EasyJet (UK):

EasyJet to launch five new routes from Rome Fiumicino, adding more pricing pressure on Alitalia

EasyJet (easyJet.com) (London-Luton) has announced it will launch five new routes from Rome Fiumicino. The five new routes are year-round services to Montpellier, Thessaloniki and Belgrade along with summer services to the popular islands of Menorca and Rhodes.

This move continues easyJet’s expansion plan in Rome which will see it increasing its capacity by a third. In December the airline announced two new routes – a daily service to Prague and thrice-weekly services to Nantes, both of which will begin operations this spring.

With the launch of these new routes, easyJet now operates 33 routes to and from Rome Fiumicino (new pressure on debt-ridden Alitalia), with a total of 154 routes operated to and from Italy. EasyJet opened a base at Fiumicino in 2009 and currently carries three million passengers each year to and from the airport – this is expected to rise to four million annually through its expansion plans. 96% of easyJet’s Italian customers say they would fly with easyJet again and one in four Italians now say EasyJet is their preferred airline.

EasyJet has also announced plans to launch a third base in Italy this year with a new base opening in Naples this March. The airline has also announced a 35% expansion of services to and from Catania in recent months. easyJet is the largest airline at Milan Malpensa, Venice and Naples. The airline currently has 25 aircraft based in Italy.

On the financial side, the airline issued this financial statement for its fiscal first quarter:

Drive demand, conversion and yields across Europe

Seats flown grew by 4.1% to 16.1 million. Passengers carried increased by 4.2% to 14.3 million, and the load factor increased by 0.1 percentage points to 88.7%.
Revenue per seat grew as expected by 3.4% on a reported basis to £55.71 per seat or by 1.4% at constant currency despite strong prior year comparators from post-Olympic trading in the UK and a challenging competitive environment. The growth in revenue per seat was driven by careful management of capacity, combined with the performance of allocated seating and the management of fees and charges. Revenue per seat also benefited from longer average sector lengths in the quarter.

Maintain cost advantage

Cost per seat excluding fuel increased by 3.0% on a reported basis and by 1.2% on a constant currency basis. This was driven by anticipated increases in charges at regulated airports and by increases in maintenance costs associated with the planned ageing of the fleet and increased proportion of leased aircraft.

Build strong number 1 and 2 network positions

EasyJet announced a new base in Naples which will be operational from Spring 2014 and the routes which will be flown from its new base in Hamburg.

Disciplined use of capital

Continued strong balance sheet with cash and money market deposits of £1.1 billion as at 31 December 2013.

With first half bookings in line with last year, easyJet expects to report a first half loss before tax of between £70 million and £90 million assuming normal levels of disruption compared to the £61 million loss reported in the first half of last year. Last year Easter fell on March 31 resulting in £25 million additional revenue in the first half of 2013. In this financial year Easter will fall in April.

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

“EasyJet has made a good start to the year. We have delivered revenue per seat growth in the quarter against a challenging competitive environment and the tough comparison with the prior year. The performance in the quarter demonstrates our continued focus on cost, progress against our strategic priorities and easyJet’s structural advantage in the European short-haul market against both the legacy and low-cost competition.

Our strategy of offering our customers low fares to great destinations with friendly service and a focus on cost control ensures that we can continue to deliver sustainable growth and returns for our shareholders.”

EasyJet (UK):

Current Routes from Rome Fiumicino: