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First easyJet flight takes off since planes were grounded in March
EasyJet’s first flight since planes were gounded in March took off from Gatwick this morning.
The 7am flight to Glasgow was mainly filled with journalists and easyJet staff familiarising themselves with the new Covid-19 safety and hygiene measures.
All passengers, cabin crew and ground crew are now required to wear masks, there will be no food service onboard flights, and flights will be equipped with spare sanitary equipment including masks, gloves and hand sanitiser.
Customers will be able to use automated bag drop to check in their hold luggage and screens will be in place at check-in desks and at airports where auto bag drop is not available. There also be more stringent cleaning measures.
Ground crew and cabin will not handle any customer documents during boarding so customers will be asked to present and scan their own documents.
EasyJet also will relaunch 310 flights this week across the airline’s European network including from London Gatwick, Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Belfast in the UK, on mainly domestic routes.
Some flights also resumed today on domestic and international routes from France, Switzerland, Italy and Portugal.
The majority of flights during June will be on domestic routes with the airline planning to fly around 50% of its 1022 routes in July.
CEO Johan Lundgren said: "While we are starting with a small number of flights this will build over the coming weeks to cover around 75% of our network by August.
"Of course, the safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew remains our highest priority. This is why we have implemented a number of measures enhancing safety at each part of the journey from disinfecting the aircraft to requiring customers and crew to wear masks. These measures will remain in place for as long as is needed to ensure customers and crew are able to fly safely as the world continues to recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic."
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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