Easyjet to operate ‘rescue flights’
EasyJet is to operate five additional flights today to repatriate passengers, including three groups of school children, stranded by a 48 hour French air traffic controllers strike.
The flights will operate from Luton to Paris Charles de Gaulle, Charles de Gaulle to Barcelona, Barcelona to Luton, Gatwick to Madrid and Marrakech to Gatwick.
The airline is also looking at putting larger aircraft on routes that have been most affected by the strike so that it can carry more passengers at a time.
EasyJet revealed that it was forced to cancel 331 flights yesterday, including 78 to and from the UK. It cancelled 248 flights on Wednesday at the start of the two-day walkout.
As a result of the cancellations, the airline has taken more than 17,300 calls from passengers, forcing it to keep its calls centres open an additional two hours in all markets except France, where opening hours have been extended by three hours.
On Wednesday alone, easyJet booked 6,066 stranded passengers into 3,103 hotel rooms. In a statement, it said: "easyJet is disappointed at this unnecessary strike action which has caused considerable and disproportionate disruption for passengers and airlines across Europe.
"easyJet can assure its passengers it is doing everything possible to limit the inconvenience of this strike on them. We are advising all affected passengers of any flight changes via e-mail and SMS. Customers can also check flight information on our Flight Tracker page on our website.
"For all passengers due to fly with us on these days, we strongly recommend that they check the status of their flight on our Flight Tracker page at www.easyjet.com/en/flight-tracker for real time information before going to the airport.
"Although this is outside of our control, easyJet would like to apologise to its customers for any inconvenience caused."
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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