Easyjet full grounding from next Tuesday. . .

[VictorCharlieTen]

- Everything. . .

[xraydice]

a source please ??

[dirk85]

Yesterday the whole easyJet fleet was grounded. News being...?

[zfw]

Yesterday the whole easyJet fleet was grounded. News being...?
Hmm Ezy134 GUZHS BFS-MAN at 1705...........not all grounded then?

zfw

[atakacs]

Seems there is still a very minimal activity. FWIW GVA base is shut down.

[VictorCharlieTen]

The source is the Airline to their handling agents. They might not have flown yesterday but 2 months of "NO" flying I thought might be news (for some ?). I thought some people on this forum might find that useful to know.

[qwertyuiop]

Too many people biting people’s heads off. The world is imploding. Be nice to each other. I landed at LGW on Monday, looked like the whole of the U2 fleet there. We are all in the shite. Stop the infighting.

[Douglas Bahada]

Amen. .

[VictorCharlieTen]

Too many people biting people’s heads off. The world is imploding. Be nice to each other. I landed at LGW on Monday, looked like the whole of the U2 fleet there. We are all in the shite. Stop the infighting.
- I for one, appreciate your words, Thanks for the comment. I thought it was worthy of a post especially since the information was directly from the Airline to the people who service the Airline and keep it flying and have done since March of 1995. Stay well & stay safe.

[hoss183]

- I for one, appreciate your words, Thanks for the comment. I thought it was worthy of a post especially since the information was directly from the Airline to the people who service the Airline and keep it flying and have done since March of 1995. Stay well & stay safe.
Sorry for the drift, but it just reminded me when i took a flight on this new budget airline in May? '95. I think the a/c must have been a tired old workhorse that had done many years on the Spain runs. I was shocked to be asked for money for a packet of peanuts, and in cruise noticing what seemed to be a stream of hydraulic fluid seeping out of the engine cowling.
How times have changed for U2 ;)

[Terry McCassey]

I trust you will have reported the 'stream of hydraulic fluid ' to a member of the cabin staff for the crew to enter in the TLB for the engineers. Any unusual observation, no matter how seemingly trivial, is always good practice to report, same too for observations inside the cabin. Let the engineers or crew be the deciders. Even tired old workhorses shouldn't be leaking fluids.

[hoss183]

I trust you will have reported the 'stream of hydraulic fluid ' to a member of the cabin staff for the crew to enter in the TLB for the engineers. Any unusual observation, no matter how seemingly trivial, is always good practice to report, same too for observations inside the cabin. Let the engineers or crew be the deciders. Even tired old workhorses shouldn't be leaking fluids.
I did. I don't know if it ever got to the cockpit, but the response from the CC was something along the lines of 'Don't worry thats normal'.
I was quite young then, and yet to have embarked on my career in building a/c, i think i'd be a lot less inclined to take that answer these days,,,

[Terry McCassey]

Hoss - good call, listening to passengers and cabin crew have saved me a few red faces in my time - keep safe.

[kriskross]

Wasn't there a story of a passenger on the Midland 737 at East Midlands bringing the engine fire to the notice of the cabin crew, and being told not to worry, the pilots know what they are doing (or words to that effect). Wrong engine shut down. Something like that.

[weebobby]

How long do we think planes will remain grounded ? I’m assuming to the end of May ?

[carmel]

easyJet Statement - Fleet Grounding (http://otp.investis.com/clients/uk/easyjet1/rns/regulatory-story.aspx?cid=2&newsid=1382773)

As a result of the unprecedented travel restrictions imposed by governments in response to the coronavirus pandemic and the implementation of national lockdowns across many European countries, easyJet has, today, fully grounded its entire fleet of aircraft.

Over recent days easyJet has been helping to repatriate customers, having operated more than 650 rescue flights to date, returning home more than 45,000 customers. The last of these rescue flights were operated on Sunday 29 March. We will continue to work with government bodies to operate additional rescue flights as requested.

At this stage there can be no certainty of the date for restarting commercial flights. We will continuously evaluate the situation based on regulations and demand, and will update the market when we have a view.

We continue to take every action to remove cost and non-critical expenditure from the business at every level in order to help mitigate the impact from the coronavirus. The grounding of aircraft removes significant cost.

easyJet maintains a strong balance sheet, with no debt re-financings due until 2022. We are in ongoing discussions with liquidity providers who recognise our strength of balance sheet and business model.

easyJet and Unite the union have collaboratively reached an agreement on furlough arrangements for its cabin crew. The agreement will be effective from 1 April 2020 for a period of two months and means that crew will be paid 80% of their average pay through the Government job retention scheme.

[bohpilot]

What will happen with the pilots and their salaries, or are pilots on contracts outside of the company?

[covec]

I see Easyjet is getting a kicking by commentators on the online BBC News: not much sympathy there and that may well influence politicians...

I’m surprised that airlines (or any business) do not have “rainy day” contingency funds.

There is a limit to what a government (& ultimately the Tax Payer) can afford.

Here in the UK there is the laudable salary protection costs due CV-19, then the Boris Johnson spending pledges e.g. HS2. Then there’s Trident. And then there will likely be a whopping Benefits bill if more & more self-employed or small businesses go bust. E.g. BrightHouse.

The Tax Payer cannot bail everyone out - the UK is now AA- vice AAA due to these spending issues (& BREXIT - remember that too - still need a deal).

[hoss183]

I’m surprised that airlines (or any business) do not have “rainy day” contingency funds.


I'm not. Its a cut-throat and competitive business.
If you have a choice financially to keep some money aside, or buy another a/c for another route/pay shareholders etc, you have to take the latter.

[qwertyuiop]

I would love to see figures showing how much tax ( pax tax, fuel tax, NI, employees income tax, corporate tax etc) easyjet has payed/created for the U.K. it’s easy (no pun intended) to say no bailout but they will be a huge loss to uk plc.

[goeasy]

I would love to see figures showing how much tax ( pax tax, fuel tax, NI, employees income tax, corporate tax etc) easyjet has payed/created for the U.K. it’s easy (no pun intended) to say no bailout but they will be a huge loss to uk plc.

I doubt there will be any loss. They will outlast most other European carriers I would bet. Including quite a few 'legacy' carriers...

[VictorCharlieTen]

Coming from a Financial background (25 years in that) and then into Aviation (16 and counting) it's worth thinking about what any potential "bailout" would involve. What I'm pointing towards is that when (for example) the RBS and others needed their rescue packages from HMG, - there was and is a path towards this.
- Firstly any "Company" HAS to go their shareholders to raise capital. This is normally in the form of what is called a "rights issue" for those not familiar with the financial terminology.
Only AFTER that and ALL other avenues to raise finance have been exhausted would any potential "bailout" be considered. As mentioned, - it's the British taxpayer that pays for any lifeline and HMG uses "our" taxpaying cash to fund life support. It's also worth remembering that HMG still has a 62.4% stake in RBS and this is from 2008 !!!!!. The financial crisis was a long 12 years ago now. Here's a good article I've read about any corporate bailouts WIPING OUT shareholders first.
As someone who lost 6 figures in RBS shares I know only too well how devastating this may be to the many of us here who have a vested interest in Easyjet. . . (myself included). I had even TOPPED UP my shareholding when they hit £5.00 thinking that was as bad as it could get. . .
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/any-corporate-bailouts-should-wipe-out-shareholders-first-2020-03-18

[Douglas Bahada]

Or they could be massive when they go bust.

[covec]

Dear Easy.

The unprecedented travel restrictions are due to an unprecedented pandemic.

There are thousands of bereaved families now...having been to 5 close family members funerals in my Life (only 1 of which was due old age) I can well imagine the grief.

Perspective.

[giggitygiggity]

Dear Easy.

The unprecedented travel restrictions are due to an unprecedented pandemic.

There are thousands of bereaved families now...having been to 5 close family members funerals in my Life (only 1 of which was due old age) I can well imagine the grief.

Perspective.

I don’t understand this post at all, can you please elaborate...

Are you sarcastically saying easyJet is playing a tiny violin right now asking others to pity them? Or are you saying that it’s fair that millions of people across the industry should be put out of work because of your personal tragedy and they should pipe down?

This forum is for professional pilots, we’re all desperately trying to keep our jobs. How does your comment help that?

Are you saying that airlines should just roll over and take it because they’re the perpetrators of this evil? If you’ve got personal problems because of the timing of your flight training then that’s bad luck and we all sympathise, most of us have been there!!! But bringing up the number of funerals you’ve attended as a vital part of your worthiness equation seems, as harsh as this sounds, somewhat pathetic. I doubt there is anyone on here they hasn’t lost loved ones at some point in their life. It’s not a competition! We’re all trying to survive.