​EasyJet Plans To Keep Middle Seat Free When Flights Resume

EasyJet has announced plans to keep the middle seats on planes vacant when flights resume, with the company saying it believes this is what customers would 'like to see'.

As with many airlines, EasyJet's planes have been grounded since the end of March due to the coronavirus pandemic - something that's reportedly led to a predicted pre-tax loss between £360 million and £380m for the first half of its financial year.

While it is too soon for the low-cost airline group to predict when flights will go back to normal, it has said it plans to keep middle seats empty to continue some level of social distancing measures, which will no doubt prove a tempting set-up for prospective travellers.

EasyJet Chief Executive Johan Lundgren said of the idea: "I expect that to happen. That is something that we will do because I think that is something that the customers would like to see.

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"Then we will work out with the authorities and listen to the customers' views and points on what they believe is the right thing to do, particularly in the start-up period."

Lundgren also said a drop in passenger demand would make these steps easier to implement when flights can eventually resume.

He continued: "Our assumption is that load factors will not be back to normal early on, which means that we will have the opportunity for a middle-seat option, but I'm talking about this as an initial phase and nobody knows for how long that phase will be."

Lundgren added: "We're also looking at various disinfection programmes on the aircraft."

EasyJet

The airline boss stressed that it was still too soon to know when EasyJet flights would return to normal service, but said the company was planning for 'a number of scenarios' on how to get back on the market when it can.

"I think we just need to be very flexible in terms of how the programme would look, and then we need to see what the pricing will be at that point in time and the profitability of those flights," he explained.

"But I think that's something we can only know once these restrictions are lifted and we can look at what the impact this will have on sales going forward. The answer to the question is nobody knows today what that means but we're planning for a number of scenarios on how we will get back to the market."

He also added that bookings for the winter period were 'well ahead' of last year, having been partly boosted by customers choosing alternative flights later in the year after original journeys were cancelled.

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Topics: World News, News, Coronavirus, travel, Easyjet

Jess Hardiman

Jess is a journalist at LADbible who graduated from Manchester University with a degree in Film Studies, English Language and Linguistics - indecisiveness at its finest, right there. She also works for FOODbible and its sister page Seitanists, which are both a safe haven for her to channel a love for homemade pasta, fennel and everything else in between. You can contact Jess at [email protected].

@Jess_Hardiman