The boss of easyJet has defended the budget airline’s business model in the face of criticism over a rash of flight delays and cancellations.
Chief executive Johan Lundgren described the current disruption as a “one-off” in a letter to the Financial Times.
He had previously told The Sunday Times the budget airline’s move last month to cut 10,000 summer flights had brought last-minute cancellations down to pre-Covid levels.
Lundgren also predicted that the disruption to flights seen across the world this year would be a “blip” and reliability would return by next summer.
And responding to a report in the FT on Friday that flight chaos had exposed easyJet’s operating model, he wrote that “far from being a weakness” the carrier’s business model was a “huge, long-term strategic strength”.
In his letter published today (Tuesday), Lundgren said: “Our model is simple – low fares and great service at Europe’s primary airports, where we provide outstanding value for our customers compared with higher cost legacy carriers.”
But he added: “Being at busy, slot-constrained airports means we have been affected during the unique period of industry operational challenges, perhaps more so than carriers flying out of less popular secondary and tertiary airports with more slack in their operations.”
He went on to describe the disruption as a “one-off” adding that “it won’t last forever and having 300 million affluent European travellers living within an hour’s drive of easyJet’s airports is a major competitive advantage”.
Lundgren said: “Many airlines’ shares have fallen significantly as a result of the pandemic but we have survived Covid-19 with one of the strongest balance sheets in European aviation.
“Our business model has been the driver of significant long-term value creation in the past and will be so again in the future.”