Fri 09 Aug 2002
easyJet admit new roster system is 'rubbish' as more flights are cancelled
According to easyJet’s operations director, the airline is struggling to cope with its rapid growth and needs to cut back its schedule ‘to recreate stability’ for pilots and cabin crew.
In a 7 August letter to easyJet’s pilots, which was leaked to the Times, Vilhelm Hahn-Petersen said: ‘It is very clear that the current situation cannot continue. Right now it feels soul destroying and the bottom line is we can now conclude that the 60% 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.’
Last Sunday, easyJet cancelled 19 of its 250 daily flights, because ‘it did not have enough staff or back-up aircraft when two planes developed technical problems’ reports the Times.
However, the airline blamed the cancellations on a new roster system, which had resulted in crews being in the wrong place. It said that to avoid a repetition of Sunday’s problems it would cut some of next week’s services but let passengers know of the schedule changes well in advance.
‘We shall be announcing shortly what flights will not be operating next week,’ an easyJet spokeman told Ananova.com. ‘They will be ones on which very few people will be travelling.
‘This is not about staff shortages,’ he added. ‘We have introduced a new rostering system which is causing us all manner of problems. It’s a rubbish system and we are changing it…We have also suffered from delays caused by air traffic control and from problems [with building work] at Luton Airport.’
However, an easyJet pilot told the Times he was concerned the airline’s rapid expansion would lead to an accident through crew fatigue. ‘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.’
On Wednesday, easyJet announced a 61.7% year-on-year increase in July passengers, while its takeover of Go, which was completed last week, will make it Europe’s biggest budget carrier.