What a waste of additional flights to these three cities, when both airlines could co-exist with the frequencies they were both offering and was sufficient for the current markets...
This in my opinion is a panic move by easyJet and is exactly how Ryanair respond, to competition and benefits no one. We have a load of additonal seats to three cities where there is no actual real additional demand, and both airlines have to palm these seats off at rock-bottom fares to fill the planes. Then playing a waiting game to see which airline cracks first and pull off the route.
easyJet has similar competition at Gatwick on numerous routes, but doesn't do this kind of reaction. So they are clearly trying to rid Vueling from the airport, where easyJet has had it all there own way until recent times.
With all these new additional frequencies, we could have been looking at 6-7 new routes being opened instead with 2-3 flights a week... Barcelona and Zurich are around 2 to 2.5hr sectors in each direction, so could have looked at new flights to other tourist destinations like Croatia, Italy and Spain.
Or even another Scandanavian city or two! They could have flown to the likes of Oslo, Helsinki or Stockholm for example while only competing with Norwegian, but not directly from the same London airports.
Anyway I cast doubts on these "additional" aircraft being added to Luton and bringing the number to 19, based here with easyJet. I am sure it has been that figure for the last year or two, but unfortunately do not have the time to confirm this and look back through the forums. I highly suspect Smoke and Mirrors might be involved in this latest press release, with additional frequencies possibly being flown from the AMS and BCN bases.
Last edited by gilesdavies; 18th Feb 2016 at 15:16.