easyJet bolsters investment in seasonal bases with five new aircraft across Malaga, Palma and Faro bases in 2022

• Building on the success of its new seasonal bases, easyJet will add two aircraft in Malaga, two in Palma de Mallorca and one in Faro from May next year
• The investment will create around 150 direct jobs for pilots and crew under local contracts in both Spain and Portugal
• The announcement follows easyJet’s strategy to take advantage of key growth opportunities across its network including at its seasonal bases which have proved successful during the pandemic

As the European aviation market continues to recover, easyJet has today announced it will be expanding its network of seasonal bases by adding five more aircraft across bases Malaga, Palma de Mallorca and Faro from May 2022. The investment will create around 120 direct jobs in Spain where the airline currently employs more than 400 people, all under local contracts along with 30 jobs in the Faro base.

As a result, next summer easyJet will have five based aircraft in Malaga where it is the second-largest airline, and seven in Palma, bringing the Spanish fleet to 16 aircraft, including four in its base in Barcelona. It will also add an additional aircraft into Portugal at the Faro base. This means the airline will have increased its fleet based in Portugal and Spain by 70% compared to pre-pandemic levels.

Adding more capacity to the airline’s bases in Málaga and Palma builds on our successful destination bases in Southern Europe, positioning easyJet as the best option to serve these popular destinations and enabling us to capture a larger slice of peak demand. These new based aircraft will allow easyJet to reinforce existing markets, as well as explore new flows in the future that were previously inaccessible for easyJet providing the airline long term growth in these destinations.

Commenting on the expansion plans, Johan Lundgren, CEO of easyJet, said:

“As easyJet has navigated effectively through the pandemic, the establishment of two new seasonal bases has been an important move. The decision to add five aircraft to these bases is testament to the important role they play in our network now and in the post-pandemic recovery.

“They have provided us with the additional flexibility to capture the most demand on these popular routes. We can now continue growing our presence in these key destinations from next May, demonstrating our confidence in the continued recovery of leisure and beach travel next summer.

“So, in summary, we see so many opportunities for easyJet in this period of recovery across Europe where legacy airlines will retrench and we are ready and able to grab them with both hands.

“We are ideally positioned to take advantage of these strategic growth opportunities with customers choosing us for our trusted brand, unrivalled network and low fares.”

21 September 2021