EasyJet Announces More Routes for Europe

It now seems that easyJet has come out and announced 10 brand new routes for next year. Three of these new routes will be from the UK to Cagliari, Helsinki, and Malta. The additional services take the total of easyJet routes to 449 overall. These routes cover 112 airports in 28 countries.

This news comes at the very same time that bmi has announced that it will be axing five of its routes early next year. Of course, bmi is not the only airline to start axing flights. Other airlines around the world are also having to cut back on flights due to the recension already reaching its prime, and it will still be a long time before recovery hits.

Not too long ago, easyJet warned of a very tough winter ahead of them. This came after the carrier announced a 65 percent slump in annual pretax profits. The budget carrier cited a fall in demand due to rising unemployment. However, they also blamed poorly timed fuel hedging for a profit fall of about £43.7 million in the 12 months to September 30^th from £123.1 last year.

There has been a lot of speculation lately that the airline may be forced to cut capacity or trim its expansion plans as a result of these losses. However, the planned delivery of six new Airbus 319s has made the new routes possible. EasyJet currently has a fleet of 185 aircrafts.

Other airlines are likely to start adding more routes as well, as demand continues to improve. However, other airlines, in light of falling profits, will still be forced to axe some routes as they wait for profits to start rolling back in.