Easyjet airline has come out to confirm that it would open a branch at London Heathrow airport if an additional runway is built. This dispelled any rumours flying around that the airline can not set its operations at a london airport considering that it a low cost carrier. The announcement was made at an annual conference at Marrakech. While addressing Guild of Travel Management Companies delegates, the CEO Carolyn Mc Call confirmed that the airline was already flying to more destinations.
She added that ten of the aircrafts are operating from Charles de Gaulle and Easyjet is among the biggest airlines at Amsterdam Schiphol.
Mc Call also said that though Heathrow is a very expensive airport to set base, EasyJet is seriously considering it for its newly launched air service for Moscow. She however clarified that they would only be operating short haul flights across Europe, saying that introducing long haul flights would distract them from their main goal.
She also touched on the issue of Ryanair announcing to start corporate travel business and start selling its fares through travel management and global distribution systems. Mc Call downplayed their plans saying that the airline does not fly to that many destinations hence not a serious competitor. She advised Ryanair that if they wanted to be relevant in the aviation industry they needed to improve their network strategy. She added that Easyjet is growing rapidly, having flown 12 Million passengers in the past year.
Easyjet is one of the established carriers at London Gatwick but it refuses to endorse the construction of an additional runway at the London airport. They said they preferred an additional runway at London Heathrow airport. The CEO said they are not sure how an addditional runway at Gatwick would affect them since they haven’t seen positive economic numbers yet.They would only endorse it if they knew it would benefit them.
By Oliver Derek
