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ARCHIVED - Holidaymakers travelling to Spain warned of major airline cutbacks
EasyJet plans to slash seat numbers while TUI will no longer offer food and beverages on flights from the UK
Budget carrier EasyJet has this week warned passengers jetting off on holiday this summer that it will slash the number of seats available on its planes in order to reduce the impact of staff shortages that have been plaguing airlines for months.
The company plans to remove the back seats from its planes, meaning that each flight can operate with three cabin crew members rather than four, an “effective measure” that will keep planes in the air rather than cancelling hundreds of flights, as happened earlier this year in Spain.
With Covid-related staff illnesses and a renewed demand for flights since travel restrictions were lifted, many airlines are struggling to keep up, but with the new measures, EasyJet hopes to operate “near” pre-pandemic levels this summer.
A spokesperson for EasyJet said: “This summer we will be operating our UK A319 fleet with a maximum of 150 passengers onboard and three crew in line with CAA regulations.
“This is an effective way of operating our fleet while building additional resilience and flexibility into our operation this summer where we expect to be back to near 2019 levels of flying.”
Meanwhile, TUI Airways has revealed that this high-season no food or drinks will be available on flights from 15 UK airports, again in an effort to reduce the number of cabin crew required to operate on flights.
A statement on May 5 said: “We can confirm that unfortunately due to staff shortages with our catering supplier, there will be no hot and cold meals or sandwiches, and a limited offering of snacks and drinks, available onboard Tui Airways short- and mid-haul flights over the coming days.
“Customers may therefore want to bring their own food and soft drinks onboard (no alcohol permitted).
“Any soft drinks over 100ml will need to be purchased after you have passed through security.”
For now, meal services on long-haul trips to Aruba, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Mexico, Orlando and St Lucia will “continue to operate as normal.”
A spokesperson for TUI assured that the airline is “continually monitoring the situation” and “working closely” with suppliers to ensure that the disruption is minimal.
The following airports will be affected by the new TUI measure:
- Birmingham
- Bristol
- Cardiff
- Doncaster Sheffield
- Dublin
- East Midlands
- Edinburgh
- Exeter
- Glasgow
- Humberside
- Leeds Bradford
- Luton
- Manchester
- Norwich
- Teesside
Passengers will, however, be notified in advance of their flight by TUI if food and beverages won’t be available.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
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