This from today's The Times......
August 09, 2002
EasyJet 'is stretched to limit', airline boss admits
By Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent
EUROPE’S biggest budget airline has admitted that its pilots and cabin crew are under severe pressure because the airline does not have enough trained staff to cope with its record-breaking growth.
EasyJet plans to cancel some flights from next week to try to recover some control over its schedule.
Letters to pilots from Vilhelm Hahn-Petersen, the operations director, which have been leaked to The Times, describe how easyJet is struggling with “severe disruption”.
“It is very clear that the current situation cannot continue,” Mr Hahn-Petersen wrote on Wednesday.
“Right now it feels soul destroying and the bottom line is we can now conclude that the 60 per cent growth coupled with four new crew bases and lots of new routes has stretched us significantly.
“The combination of volume and complexity in the summer schedule has stretched us to the limit. I recognise that we need to scale back slightly to recreate stability.”
Mr Hahn-Petersen said he understood “the frustrations and concerns of all crew”.
The Luton-based airline, which bought rival Go for £374 million last week, has set itself a huge expansion target to satisfy financial markets and stop Ryanair from reclaiming the number one spot in Europe. On Wednesday, while Mr Hahn-Petersen was writing to pilots about the airline’s difficulties, easyJet directors and managers were boasting about the 62 per cent rise in passengers last month. In a letter dated July 5, Mr Hahn-Petersen wrote that he could “recognise the strain everyone has been under” and would have more staff trained by August.
But on Sunday, easyJet cancelled 19 flights because it did not have enough staff or back-up aircraft when two planes developed technical problems. Thousands of passengers were delayed by several hours and many abandoned their journeys or flew home on Monday.
The airline tried to blame air traffic control delays but it emerged that British Airways, which had five times as many flights that day, had not cancelled any flights because of air traffic control.
One easyJet pilot contacted The Times expressing his concern that the airline’s uncontrolled expansion would lead to an accident because crew were disillusioned and exhausted. “I have repeatedly told managers the situation has become dangerous but their only concern is profits,” he said.
“They have pushed staff to the limits and now we are seeing the consequences. It would be terrible if it took a crash to force them to rein back on this breakneck expansion.”
An easyJet spokesman said: “I’m alarmed if one of our pilots is saying these things. We have worked our pilots incredibly hard and made great demands on them in the past two months. We are negotiating with them over pay and they have rejected our first offer.”
He said a new roster design- ed to improve efficiency had resulted in crew being in the wrong place. Building work at Luton was also causing problems. But he denied that any of the difficulties had resulted in safety being compromised.