EasyJet-6
 

Venice is predominantly leisure traffic. And access is severely restricted for vacation travel by Covid measures at this time. The cruise industry - a major factor at Venice - is likely to be the very last sector to return to (a much reduced) "normal". I would speculate that cruises will operate at a fraction of 2019 volumes until well into 2022 at best. So given the need to reduce exposure in the short-term, it makes sense for EasyJet to cut there until business can return more fully. Venice is not alone in facing cutbacks - some bases have been closed, others face reductions too. But one particular challenge for carriers serving Northern Italy is that it is relatively easy for German, French, Benelux tourists to drive there in their own vehicles. And many may choose to do this given the fear of flying in a Covid world - even if we in the industry can point to mitigating measures and low incidence of flight-induced infections. For much of the public, the trust just isn't there yet. Confidence may be slow to return. One advantage of the UK market (from an airline perspective) is its island status. If one is travelling to Italy, then driving from the UK implies an expensive ferry or Euroshuttle (rail) crossing and a very lengthy drive with overnight paid accommodation likely required in both directions. So UK-Italy routes should perform more strongly than those serving more 'drivable' overland jurisdictions.

Thank you for the well reasoned, factual explanation

I understand your point of view but Milan is also Northern Italy, a drivable destination and it has been the hotbed of the virus in Italy, yet there Easyjet will reduce fleet just by 1 a/c..And competition abounds at MXP with FR, W6 bases

Milan's traffic is highly diversified (ie reduces the dependency on a single market sector for pax), and has a large amount of locally originating traffic with a mix of business, VFR, tourism, etc - as opposed to being primarily inbound tourism

davidjohnson6 is correct. But in addition to the valid points he makes, don't underestimate the importance of the cruise ship market at Venice. The cruise industry is comatose for now and will return only very slowly. Milan has no reliance on the cruise business for its passenger flows. But it is a major factor for carriers serving Venice.

Only thing is even before the pandemic ,Venice was already putting pressure on cruise companies to scale back due to the effect the numbers were having on the city. this may of course change after the hit Italys tourism industry has taken

So easyJet are changing their cabin bag policy on flights from next Feb. In essence coming into line with Wizzair preventing people bringing on a large cabin bag. If you booked extra legroom you can bring on an additional large cabin bag. This also penalises people who have already booked and deferred from this summer. Those affected by this will get an offer of “hands free” by checking in their large cabin bags.

Was Easyjet being significantly out-competed on base airfare by other LCCs who could afford to charge less because other LCCs were bringing in more ancillary luggage revenue and Easyjet was just too generous on luggage allowance ?
Or is it simply a way (effectively) to raise average customer spend, independent of actions of rivals ?

I'm trying to decide whether this unbundling will likely see a (small but non-trivial) decrease in the base air fare that Easyjet charge, so as to compete on price against rivals... or if average air fare will be largely unchanged

Undoubedtly a push for more revenue in the short-term as overhead locker space is hardly at a premium in the current world.

At least as some kind of normal resumes, I'm not so sure this will work out quite how EZY might like to hope. The key difference from the Ryanair/Wizz policies is both still allow any customer to purchase priority boarding for the 2nd larger carry-on, irrespective of seat selection. EasyJet don't appear to be offering that to the majority, standard customers where the only option is to go "hands free" and check-in any additional bag (which of course Ryanair/Wizz still offer as well).

The main purpose of the Ryanair bag policy change in 2018 was to strike the right balance of cabin vs check-in bags as too many were going in the hold causing ground handling issues and delays. In other words, they sell priority to the capacity of the overhead bins, which I think's up to 90 pax, and everything else is checked-in at bag drop. That's also why they stopped selling priority at the gate last minute through the app. To little surprise, in normal times at least, they achieve this regularly with priority often a sell out. All in all, it works very well.

With EasyJet, they quote 42-63 seats depending on aircraft type fall into "up front" or "extra legroom" plus any flexi and easy plus cardholders that are elligable to 2 carry-on's. That would struggle to fill capacity of the overhead bins most of the time and would depend how heavily booked up front seats or flexi/plus customers there are. The result being too many customers forced to check-in additional items leading to more bags going in the hold whilst cabin space still flying partially fresh air. Suddenly they find themselves in the same situation Ryanair were in previously.

May not become an apparent issue while demand is so low, but if and when things pick-up, neither a win-win for airline or customer I fear.

Last time I was on easyJet, in "normal" times, the overhead lockers were full; the cabin crew desperately trying to find room for the last couple of bags.
It was not so much a problem on Ryanair, presumably due to the 90 pax cut off.

Easyjet's requirement is to make money, all else is secondary, no matter how much spin the marketing and pr director puts on it.

If customers don't wish to pay more then that is up to them but ultimately customers will pay, whether they like it or not is a wholly different debate.

racedo - I agree that Easyjet seek to make maximum profit. However, do Easyjet have the pricing power in the market to effectively raise the cost of flying by increasing the cost of luggage items which are larger than a small rucksack ? Or is competition with Ryanair forcing them to lower the headline "basic bum on seat and nothing else" fare while moving more of the revenue into ancillaries ? While I'm quite happy to fly with just a small rucksack that fits under a seat, many pax will want a larger piece of luggage (Mrs Johnson definitely won't stay overnight without her make-up bag) so we really have a disguised fare increase. Some pax will pay - but I'm still wondering if Easyjet really have this control over the market that you seem to suggest. I imagine that Easyjet are doing this now so that it's not really noticed but will take effect for booking done over the Xmas period when people aren't working and are thinking about whether to go away in spring/summer 2021, by which time vaccines will likely be readily available to the elderly/vulnerable and (airlines hope) demand for cross-border leisure travel returns

Partly related, I'm thinking also of the previous "booking transaction fee" that Easyjet used to charge - about £15 per booking, whether it was for one person flying one sector, or a large group flying multiple sectors - which Easyjet eventually abandoned, presumably because rivals didn't use this as a pricing model

The revenue model has also been turned upside down allowing flexible changes up to 14 days before departure and refunds in the case of quarantine has to wreck a lot of their previous revenue.
That said, their policy is nowhere near as generous as BA or Ryanair, for example. their refund performance in my case has also been very poor. Overall I’m not sure that easyJet are heading in the right direction here. The Ryanair & Wizz model actually works well for almost everybody. Backpacks only, carry-on only, small check-in for £12, or the heavier check-in bags, there’s something for most travellers. The deluge of 150 trolley bags are kept out of the cabin, which makes boarding so much less chaotic.

davidjohnson6

the admin booking fee was per transaction
so it was prudent to add lots of sectors to the reservation

Except that you can not book hold luggage to only part of your reservation...

davidjohnson6

The aviation market means nobody controls or has control over pricing in the market. I have friends who will quite happily fly Easyjet anywhere but will avoid Ryanair unless they have zero options. They will complain all about the Ryanair flight even when price is 40% of a similar length Easyjet flight, even getting delayed by 2 hrs on one is ok but the other is bloody Ryanair delayed us.

Individual flight decisions are made across a wide range of factors. Yeah I know it doesn't apply to you my oddball friend, who flies with everybody BUT you are the outlier 1% who knows what they want V the 99%.

I would suggest that if you split the London based UK fliers down who take 6 or more sectors a year you will find Easyjet / Ryanair / Wizz / etc loyalists with varying degrees of loyalty. Depending on background as well, the old "We only shop in Waitrose for everything 15 years ago, who now proclaim that Lidl offers a good selection of wines which is why we shop there brigade" v "We fly anybody".

The Waitrose shoppers will still buy Waitrose when visitors are coming round V normal shopping, just like some will go BA rather than Easyjet to do the old Mrs Bucket "Keeping up appearances".

I'm proud to be a "I'll go with anyone" oddball ! :O

These days its easyJet trundling after Ryanair (and Wizz) rather than for them the better before when Ryanair always was; look what easy have done to their website and lets do that. Now when Norwegian is as good as finished in the premium LCC it could have been a nice sole player niche for easyJet. Cheaper than the networks but not as bad for customer experience as Ryanair. after FR's loss of its Always Getting Better chief. No chance of that now when easy have an ex Ryanair as operations chief. Even though he does have a year or two of premium cabin experience.

Charging for overhead locker space is one notch short of a pound in the slot for toilet.

Easyjet has just lost my business.

As a pretty regular traveller with them, I can't say that I've seen a single problem to suggest this move is necessary or warranted. Hand baggage on easyJet flights has been far better managed than the fiasco which I regularly saw on BA short-haul in the latter stages of boarding. This looks to me like a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.