EasyJet's chief operating officer, Peter Bellew, has resigned.
Bellew’s departure comes amid public outcry over the airline’s decision to cancel a string of flights this summer, a move which has caused disruption for thousands of travellers.
The aviation industry was forced to make waves of redundancies during the Covid-19 pandemic in order to rebalance its finances, but with travel demand now recovering, many airlines are struggling to meet growing demand.
EasyJet has been one of the worst affected airlines, and has been forced to cancel thousands of flights this summer due to staff shortages at London Gatwick airport.
In a statement confirming Bellew’s departure, EasyJet said that the Irishman had left “to pursue other business opportunities”.
EasyJet CEO, Johan Lundgren, thanked Bellew for his service and said that the budget airline was “absolutely focused on delivering a safe and reliable operation” over the summer months.
EasyJet has appointed David Morgan – who has been with the airline since 2016 – as interim COO until a permanent replacement for Bellew is appointed.
The BBC reports that around six per cent of the 160,000 EasyJet flights set to run over July, August and September have been cancelled, which equates to roughly 10,000 individual flights. Many of these have come on the day that they were due to depart.
EasyJet insists that it is continuing to operate up to 1,700 flights a day and most are unaffected by the cancellations.
In June, however, the Unite trade union criticised EasyJet for a “lack of leadership” over the cancellations and said that Bellew ought to have been “taking control of the situation”.
EasyJet has reassured that no further cancellations will be announced this week and the last affected customers will be informed on Monday (July 4).
Meanwhile, the UK government has accelerated the national security vetting checks that all new aviation recruits are required to pass, to help get new staff into the sector more quickly, which will assist airlines to better meet demand.
Ministers have said that accreditation checks will now be completed within five days on average, with counter terrorist checks being done in less than 10 days.
Photo by Elio Santos on Unsplash
