Major disruption in Easyjet network June 28

[atakacs]

Hi

I see massive delays and dozens of cancellations in the entire Easyjet network today.

Any idea what going on ? Certainly not weather related... ;)

[k3lvc]

Don't know about specifics for yesterday but the last 3-4 weeks have been a joke for my EZY flights. Plenty of cancellations and significant delays. Are they short of planes/crew or just taking the easy (sorry) option of cancellation where the slightest problem exists.

Edited as I've just noted your location and that's been my destination with the biggest issues - is it a specific thing to GVA ?

[atakacs]

Don't know if it's a Geneva thing only but was (and still stuck) in Berlin where no less than 4 flights have been canceled and probably all EZY flights had at least a one hour delay... Something clearly Easyjet specific as all other carriers seemed to operated on schedule.

[Capot]

The flight deck, on one of the few Easyjet flights from Schonefeld last Thursday evening, said that the cause of that day's upset was ATC disruption by IA in France and Spain.

That flight, to LGW was delayed but not very significantly. A lot on the board (6 - 7?) showed CANCELLED. Nearly all Easyjet, but they had the majority of flights on the board anyway.

Sounded plausible, and they made good time finishing with a westerly landing at LGW.

[atakacs]

Hmmm... why would they be more affected than other carriers ? Bad luck ?!

They are indeed claiming the cancellation was as a result of an extraordinary circumstance... I've asked about the specifics.

[merlinxx]

French ATC strike, expect more:ugh:

[atakacs]

French ATC strike, expect more

hmmm... but then why would Easyjet be the only carrier affected ? As far I as could tell all other carriers seemed to be mostly on schedule, at least in and out of Berlin, whereas ESY had massive delays and multiple cancelations.

[OutsideCAS]

Whilst there is no doubt the ATC strikes will cause EZY (and others) delays, cancellations etc., their problems (EZY) won't be helped any i suspect by a dire shortage of crew for the summer season.

May I suggest a bout of recruiting may well have to begin at EZY before long ?? After all, this appears to be desperately needed and chartering 757's etc. Can't be the best medium to long term solution ??
:confused:

[k3lvc]

And a dire shortage of crew will be the crux of the matter. At the moment for my regular SH trip I have the lesser of 2 evils - EZY direct or BA via LHR - similar price when everything taken into consideration and the EZY gives me a couple more hours in the office/at home however the recent short notice cancellations do nothing to endear me to them.

My sole reason for travelling is to get from A-B - everything else (food/drink/service/smiles) is an added bonus. If they can't satisfy my primary need they've no need to try with the rest of it as they won't have my money.

Presumably because many commuters book in advance at low prices we're a slightly more palatable bunch to deal with under canx situations than 180 Malaga bound holidaymakers who've paid through the nose with excess baggage etc

Cynical - moi ?

[groundbum]

easyjet cancelled my flight during the awful UK weather over Xmas 2009. They blamed the weather, so Easyjet said they didn't need to pay the 250euro compensation as it was outside control. I pointed out 100+ other flights flew that same day from the same airport, including two competitors flights on the same route. Threatened to take Easy to court to claim my 250euro/passenger, and they promptly paid up!

So if they blame ATC or some other reason, and yet other airlines flew successfully, then I would suggest easy took the easy(sorry) option again of cancelling and no doubt letting their network getting some much needed breathing room due understaffing etc. Kinda like when the office computer network dies and everybody gets an easy afternoon sitting around. The data is there to show everybody was flying, and easy was not, so they have no defence in court.

G

[Tigger4Me]

Similar story here to Groundbum. My EZY flight LIS/LGW was cancelled in January. No reason was given but there was some snow at LGW, though it didn't stop anyone else from flying.

At a cost of over €1100 we managed to get two of the last seats on TAP LIS/LHR and then transferred by Underground and Gatwick Express. Easy immediately refunded for the cancelled flight and a week later for the Underground and train fares. However, it took another 4 months before they coughed up in full for our flights on TAP and then only after I threatened them with court.

[BOAC]

Current situation is reported to be lack of crew due to bad management planning. Thread running on this in Airlines, Airports etc

[Avman]

due to bad management planning

Now, where have I come across that before. Ah, I know, it's where I work :cool:

[dualex]

Similar here.
My 1810pm flight to Faro was canceled on the 13th of June as we were waiting to board the aircraft.
Reason given was technical and then crew shortage...
Back to the airport on the following day, that same flight op by their new 757 was 6 hours delayed, reason: they did not have the right crew trained to fly the aircraft, so we had to wait for the smaller a320 that arrived from Athens. Very bad experience...

Apart from the normal hotel accom offered the night before all pax were given a ridiculous £3 voucher
I remembered one of the flight attendants complaining to unimpressed pax that they only get paid a flat £17 for being on a retainer...

[CornishFlyer]

dualex, the joy of using 24 hour time means you don't have to add the am/pm to the time :p :ok:

[Ancient Observer]

We were due to travel with ezy from lgw to fco at 0710 on 11th July. We had checked in, and the flight was cancelled with no notice while we were in the departures lounge.

No announcement, we found out by looking at the departures board.

Not a single person from ezy could be contacted. The ground handling agents had been told nothing, they claimed, when they appeared ONE HOUR after we went to the info desk. At this point, we are still stuck in the departures lounge.

The airline info desk had no-one from ezy, and refused to give us a phone no. to contact the Station manager. (No-one from ezy/their handling agent - and ezy dominate lgw!!!)

We only got out of the departures lounge when one of the other pax told the BAA desk that if they did not get us out, he would call the police. He looked and sounded like a policman!!

Clever old me had deliberately chosen the first flight of the day as they are cancelled/delayed much less often.

The non-ezy handling agent for the other airlines speculated that ezy had "once again, run out of crew"

[Alanwsg]

Wow: I was in LGW on Sunday morning and saw that happen.
I was on the 0710 Toulouse flight & having been following this thread was waiting in trepidation for my flight to go the same way.
Wonder if I'll get back....

[Skipness One Echo]

My GLA-LGW on Sunday afternoon was cancelled on Sunday morning. I was advised by text, just as well as I had decided not to head North after all. I got a refund for a flight I had decided not to fly on anyway. Result!

[BAcommuter]

EDI-LGW cancelled without notice Sunday afternoon. BA to the rescue with a reasonably priced replacement ticket to Heathrow.

I filled in the EZY online claim form more in hope than expectation. I am occasionally seduced by EZY if they are more than £20 cheaper than BA. However, if they don't cough up then I've just lost more than I've ever saved so all that suffering with delays, no allocated seating, no refreshments was for nothing.

[Nicholas49]

Quote from IB4138 in Airports,Airlines thread:

Because on boarding the aircraft, two hours after scheduled departure time and before the flight was cancelled, the captain announced that the delay was due to there being no crew to operate the flight at the scheduled time.


Does this mean that the crewing shortage is cabin crew rather than flight crew? Does anyone know whether there is any prospect of an improvement in the situation?

Nick

[BAcommuter]

Re post #19. Easyjet just reimbursed my BA ticket by return of email and no quibbles. Forgiven but I'm not chancing it again until the crewing situation stabilises.

[Nicholas49]

Hi

Does anyone know why today's U2 5087 (easyJet Gatwick to Athens) departed 15 minutes late but landed 90 minutes late, according to Flight Stats?

I know someone on the flight, but they appear to have their phone switched off. Just curious as to the reason.

Nick

[TSR2]

If you look at the Athens arrivals today you will see that all the international arrivals are between 60 and 180 minutes late with quite a number of cancellations. I don't know the reason but it is not confined to Easyjet.

[piton]

Probably means they had to hold for 30 mins - possibly due to the strike action in Greece today.

[Right Way Up]

Probably pushed to a remote stand waiting for their slot. So pushed back relatively on time but took off late according to their slot.

[MALC9990]

Sunday Times 18th July reported that Easyjet's timekeeping was now worse than Air Zimbabwe. Major problems at LGW. Easyjet blamed ATC. Monday evening 19th July I'm booked on EZY713 LGW to EDI. Check in no problem. In departures south terminal - at 18:00. Screens show - Gate Opens at 18:50. At 18:50 screen changes to Gate Opens at 20:00. At 20:02 - screen says Go To Gate 6. All 110 or so of us are in the gate and ready to go by 20:25. At 21:05 - Handling Agent comes in to say Flight Cancelled - No Crew.

Seems to me that the Sunday Times had it spot on Easyjet is a shambles at LGW. As you might expect - not a sole from Easyjet was available just the poor old supervisor from the Handling agent.

To make matters worse, we were all told to either rebook or get a refund online. At 6:00 am this morning 19th myEasyjet.com showed that I had actually successfully flown to EDI last evening - funny - here I am still at home. The online system for getting a refund did not work - just went round and round telling me to go to Manage My Booking and then telling me that to get a refund I need to go to "Manage My Booking". Eventully called the Customer Experience Centre - now that is a term I would not use - Customer Bad Experience Centre would be more appropriate. After some time they accepted that I did not fly - despite the system saying different.

I can't say what it was like at the Copthorne for the pax that went there and tried rebooking but I doubt many got to EDI today - perhaps some are still in limbo in LGW.

The only one who comes out of this with any credit is the Handling Agent supervisor - he was at least appologetic for the fact that EasyJet were TOTALLY absent !!!!

[Pax Vobiscum]

I've never travelled easyJet and I'm sure their operations are not perfect, but comparing their punctuality with Air Zimbabwe is just silly (except for the purpose of creating attention-grabbing headlines). AirZim operate a handful of flights a week with long turnround times. Easy operate a very large number of flights in and out of busy European hubs with quite (some would say unrealistically) tight turnrounds.
Even comparing them with Ryanair (who like to knock their punctuality in adverts) can be misleading. Ryanair's business model involves the use of many relatively minor (read: cheaper) airports whereas Easy use major airports, where congestion delays are more likely.

[wiggy]

I've never travelled easyJet ...

But I have and I think some of the recent criticism is justified.....I have the choice of travelling on a legacy carrier or Easyjet on a route between the same city pair. From my experience until the last year they used to be comparable on all but price! Easy's punctuality was robust enough not to raise comment and their cabin service was better than the legacy's. Recently however Easy's punctuality really has become pants, particularly on the late in the day services, presumably because that have picked up reactionary delays, which in turn is perhaps because of unrealistic scheduling. In addition, and all IMHO, Easy have become far to willing to axe services, whole days at a time, at the sniff of an European ATC work to rule causing slot delays. I'm afraid for evening flights, and/or anything close to a ATC work to rule day I'm back to booking with the legacy carrier (who these days can be the cheaper option).

[Nicholas49]

What is it with easyJet at the moment?!

Could someone who knows what they are talking about please explain why practically every flight from Gatwick this evening has a 1+hour delay?

Is there something very seriously wrong here?

[TightSlot]

THIS (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703940904575394821671666624.html) should give you a taste of what is happening