I appreciate that the above article quotes Lundgren as saying the A319's will be gone by 2027, but this Trading Update for FY 2023, which is only a couple of weeks old, indicates 2029 (slide 18).

https://corporate.easyjet.com/files/...slides-new.pdf

No denying the 319 has served them well but I'm always surprised (albeit 20+ years later) that they went for the 319 over the 320 in the first place when they decided to switch to Airbus.

7 of them have also been WFU in the last month or so, with at least another few to go according to Jethro

They were swapping out B737-300s and B737-700s for a similar size though, the first A320 came around five years later in 2009 and I that recall Uncle Stelios was NOT happy, he was all about the dividends....

Does make me wonder if the A320 will be too large for some domestic routes, they have looked at the A220 & E195-E2 in the past.
The joys of single type savings are well known but seems to work OK in US for Breeze & Jet Blue in US.

I wouldn't say it's worked well for Breeze. Looking at their financials and the rate at which they're burning cash, I'm not sure anything is working well for them - their performance makes Norse look positively rosy. Much though I think easyJet's current management team has a lot to answer for, I think it would be a real mistake to move away from the single-type fleet structure.

More chance of the thin routes being dropped - are the economics that much different from 319 and the 320?

Yeah, completely. Just they then squeezed on an unprecedented amount of seats onto the 319 that they needed additional emergency exits and still required a 4th cabin crew member.

I guess as you allude, probably the cautious approach with a319's was when Stelios was more influential in the company's decision making process.

Some interesting figures from the CAA website and easyJet's own reports (well, I think they're interesting for what they tell you, anyway).

For the UK AOC only, July 2023 figures show:
A319s operating at 88.4% of seats filled
A320s operating at 87.1% of seats filled
A320Ns operating at 88.3% of seats filled
A321s operating at 89.5% of seats filled
Total is 87.9% for all aircraft variants

This is a pure "bums on seats" measurement. If you look at the reported load factor (seat km used over seat km available or RPK over ASK in airline speak) on which the CAA also report, the load factor is 91.99%. What becomes clear from a comparison of those figures is that their performance on the longer routes is better, and they must have a number of short sectors which are acting as a drag on the overall seat factor. The A321s are generally flown on the longer routes as well, and have a slightly higher seat factor than the rest of the easyJet UK aircraft. easyJet reported a network-wide "bums on seats" seat factor (so UK, Austria and Swiss AOCs all combined and which include seats sold to passengers who didn't travel) of 92.5%.

August figures for the UK AOC:
A319s operating at 90.2% of seats filled
A320s operating at 89.0% of seats filled
A320Ns operating at 89.9% of seats filled
A321s operating at 91.8% of seats filled
Total of 89.7% for all aircraft variants

Again the network RPK/ASK measure produces a figure of 92.6% for that same fleet in August - so the disparity is there again. The easyJet reported network seat factor of 92.5%.

Before anyone says you'd expect this in July/August, don't forget a) how much capacity easyJet deploy from the domestic "business" markets onto leisure routes during this period anyway and b) the trend is much the same for May and June anyway.

The message in here is that the A321s on their long sector runs are doing well, but they have some short-sector flying in the network which is performing quite badly to be able to make a visible dent in the RPK/ASK versus seat factor comparison in this way. It does make you wonder about some of this headlong rush into Belfast City, Southampton and others - although you can't tell what is working and what isn't, some short sector flying very obviously can't be working as it should be. But yet they keep doing more of it!

Going back to my A level economics, there are only 24 hours in the day, so if that short domestic sector is making money rather than having the a/c sat on the ground earning nothing isn't it worth doing?

Mind you RYR have announced 95% load factors for September

https://corporate.ryanair.com/news/r...-div-declared/

It’s impossible for anyone other than us to tell tbh. Is it making money for one. How much lower is the baggage and retail spend on a short route ? And by stuffing gaps in your schedule with short flights, what impact does that have on punctuality and reliability on the long flights and so what EU261 would you have across the network?

All I can see is that jet2 have removed almost all such activity from their network with only a very few little bits remaining. My guess is reliability is a reason why they did so, but they’ve reached that conclusion.

Easyjet has announced a significant number of new routes earlier this evening. It looks like a join-the-dots announcement... nothing particularly surprising. My first reaction was "Meh". You probably know where to get the details.

Is that it for S24 or should one expect another batch later this year, or early next year ?

I do, but not everyone will. It's Sean M's 'X' account. The guy puts in the hard yards, we shouldn't begrudge him the credit.

The general convention is another batch in January. (Interesting to note, nothing in Germany where they are expanding easyJet Holiday to, nothing in Paris and very little in Italy).

I would expect another batch in the next couple of weeks. Also interesting to note that they haven't released flight only options on any of the new 'based' routes out of Birmingham yet, only via holidays.

I must agree it does seem odd, although I suppose that for the most part independent travellers might be less inclined to book early, and given the "bucket and spade" profile of the routes so far announced for the based fleet, perhaps the imperitive is to maximise package holiday sales before opening up bookings to independent customers.

There appeared to be quite a few "holes" in the initial BHX programme, so perhaps there are new "non sun" routes to be launched to fill them in the not too distant future.

BHX
 

I get the desire to maximise revenue through people booking packages through EZY Holidays and not offer flight only just yet, but surely if that was the case, they'd be doing that from all UK bases? Do people in MAN and BRS book flight only much earlier than those flying from BHX? 🤣

We can only hope that they will be released soon or perhaps, as pointed out in the previous post, the schedule is not yet completed and there are new destinations to be added and therefore timing changes for existing planned routes

Either way, EZY need to be get a wriggle on as FR, LS and TUI have had their BHX S24 flights on sale for a while now.

Or am I starting to sniff a rat? New routes from SOU to FAO and ALC were put on sale today without having to book through EZY Holidays 🤔🤔

New routes I have noticed on the App today are:-

Belfast City to Alicante
Belfast International to Enfidha, Larnaca and Southampton
Bristol to Skiathos
Glasgow to Enfidha, Larnaca and Southampton
Liverpool to Enfidha
London Gatwick to Skiathos
London Luton to Reus
Manchester to Reus and Skiathos
Newcastle to Alicante
Southampton to Alicante and Faro

GLA-SOU isn’t a new announcement

found nothing in the system mate about Bhx