EasyJet unveils winter schedule

No-frills airline easyJet revealed no major cuts to its winter schedule for six regional airports today, despite ever-increasing oil costs.

Unveiling flight plans at Manchester, Edinburgh, Belfast, Glasgow, Liverpool and Stansted airports, Luton-based easyJet said there were no major cuts “outside of seasonalities”, when some summer routes are switched to take advantage of popular skiing destinations.

The winter schedule, which so far does not include flights from Luton and Gatwick, boasts two new flights from Manchester to the skiing gateways of Sofia and Geneva.

Last week the airline – on track to fly more than 40 million passengers this year – rolled out its winter flights from Bristol, East Midlands, Manchester and Newcastle airports. Together the two groups of regional hubs comprise around half of easyJet’s operations.

A spokeswoman said today: “There are no major route culls. The schedule is in line with seasonality.”

EasyJet’s Luton and Gatwick schedule is released next week.

Its domestic winter fares released so far cost from £19.99 one way, including all taxes, with European destinations priced from £21.99 one way.

Airlines are wrestling with the soaring cost of oil, which has risen around 50% this year alone to near 150 US dollars a barrel.

Rival Ryanair announced last month it would be grounding up to 10% of its fleet to combat soaring airport charges. Chief executive Michael O’Leary warned that this year’s prospects depended entirely on oil costs – and that the airline would break even if prices remained at the 130 US dollar mark for the rest of the year.

British Airways said earlier in the year it was reviewing capacity and network in the wake of oil’s relentless price rise, while a series of US rivals have been forced to slash this winter’s timetables by around 10%.

Yesterday easyJet said the impact of promotional offers kept its planes flying at near to capacity during June. The carrier’s load factor – a measure of how full its planes are – stood at 86.9%, marginally ahead of the same month last year.