British airline EasyJet He is committed to Spain and hopes to restore pre-pandemic passenger volumes in 2024. The company left red ink behind and achieved record results in the 2022-2023 financial year. Despite macroeconomic uncertainty, the company sees an opportunity to once again transport as many travelers to our country as in 2019.

“We continue to follow the path of traffic recovery,” explains the company’s CEO in Southern Europe, Javier Gandarain conversation with Independent. The company completed the financial year with 15.5 million passengers transported in our country, which is 18% more than in the previous year. Although “the intention is to be able to get back to the 18 million passengers we had pre-pandemic and see if we can do that as early as 2024,” he adds.

To achieve this goal, it will be supported by a focused expansion plan in our country. In addition to the databases that the company already had in Barcelona, ​​Palma And Malagawill open a new seasonal base at the airport Alicante-Elche, with three aircraft and for which 100 employees have already been hired. It will also expand its fleet at its seasonal base in Palma de Mallorca from 7 to 8 aircraft.

“This allows us to continue to develop the network,” also adds the president of the Airline Association (ALA). On Tuesday the company announced the opening of 12 more new routes in Spain, adding almost 17,000 additional seats to its planned capacity for next summer season. The routes go on sale this Thursday, November 30th. In the year just ended, the company operated 198 routes through 49 airports in Spain.

Gandara recalls that EasyJet was one of the few airlines that was consistently profitable before Covid. In the case of the second semester, the group received the numbers write down pre-tax with £455m for the full year. “This result indicates the strength of the business model,” he notes.

The strong numbers come despite a turbulent macroeconomic context, marked by the Israeli war and oil prices. fuel. “Business is characterized by complex geostrategic contexts. When there is not one thing, there is another,” says Gandara. In his case, he believes that the impact of military conflict is “limited.”

Regarding the price for fuel, shows that the company has covered next year’s kerosene consumption with futures contracts. In the first half of fiscal 2024 (October 2023 to March 2024), the company insured 76% of its fuel at a fixed price below the current market price. For the second half of the year it covers 50% of fuel at a similar price. “This allows us to mitigate the impact of fuel price volatility. Fluctuations have an effect, but to a lesser extent,” he clarifies.

The company has temporarily stopped flights to Israel And Jordanalthough he continues to fly Egypt and other destinations in the area. “We noticed something similar to what we noticed a year and a half ago, when the conflict between Russia and Ukraine began,” he explains. Demand quickly recovered after the initial moment of uncertainty. “In October, November and December, these conflicts do not have a significant impact on demand,” he concludes.

The company manager emphasizes that “people are traveling again, even more than before.” “At the moment, everything indicates that the intention to continue to travel and fly is still there,” he adds.

In the specific case of the UK airline, tour operator EasyJet Holidays contributed £122 million to the figure, reflecting the division’s strong performance. From my side, load factor It has recovered to normal pre-pandemic levels, about 90%. Revenue per unit through March looks good, so “we expect the result to improve further, although it is too early to say.”

New aircraft

Last week the President Airbus Spaniard Alberto Gutierrez highlighted the high order backlog that aircraft manufacturers currently have due to the recovery in demand after the pandemic and plans to renew the aircraft fleet. If supply conditions were normalized, the company estimates that it would have 20% more demand than it could cover.

EasyJet may be one of the most exposed to this in the industry. The company has a firm order for 158 aircraft (90 A-320 and 68 A-321), which should be delivered by 2029. “We are watching this very closely, but we hope that these delays will not affect us,” Gandara refused the challenge that not only the European giant is experiencing, but also its eternal North American competitor Boeing.

Of course, remember that your airline is the “major customer for Airbus aircraft in Europe.” They currently expect to receive 16 new aircraft in the current fiscal year and another 19 by 2025. “In principle, they confirmed to us that they will not have any delays,” he insists.

The UK airline has a fleet of 336 aircraft and the 2026 fleet plan target is to reach 370 aircraft. Numbers, yes, are flexible. If things go well, the number may reach 395 aircraft, and if things do not go so well, then they may remain at 303. These new aircraft, which will replace the old aircraft, belong to the Neo family. And this also means savings. For example, the A-320 Neo has 15% fewer emissions and 50% less noise than the previous model.

Among the new routes announced are six that will connect Palma de Mallorca with Nantes, Montpelier, Southampton, Belfast City, Prague and Athens. The first three will operate from March, April and May respectively, while the remaining three will start operating from June 2024. Also in the Balearic Islands, the airline has added another route connecting Menorca with Porto, in this case operating from June. In doing so, easyJet is adding more than 11,700 additional seats across both islands.

The remaining 5 routes will connect several Spanish cities with Birmingham, where easyJet will open a new base in March 2024 and add over 5,200 additional seats to its summer 2024 capacity. These new routes to the English city will benefit the following cities: Barcelona, ​​Alicante , Malaga, Fuerteventura and South Tenerife. All of these routes will start operating in March 2024, with the exception of Fuerteventura, which will start operating in April.