EasyJet has reopened its base at Newcastle International Airport more than five years after leaving due to Covid-era cuts.
In good news for England’s northeast, its three-aircraft base supports 140 jobs, for pilots and cabin crew, and more than doubles its number of destinations from the airport, the budget airline said.
EasyJet flights have called at Newcastle over the past six years, but basing the three Airbus A320 airliners there will mean more flights at more times of the day.
New routes added by the reopening include:
- Antalya in Turkey
- Corfu and Rhodes in Greece
- Rome in Italy (launching March 30)
- Lisbon in Portugal (launching June 22)
- Nice in France
- Reus and Tenerife in Spain
- Sharm-El-Sheikh in Egypt
- Prague in Czechia
- Malta
Director of aviation development at Newcastle Airport, Leon McQuaid, said the pandemic closure had been ‘difficult for everyone’, and that the ‘huge investment’ in the reopening is ‘absolutely fantastic’.
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Meanwhile, easyJet CEO Kenton Jarvis has warned that the war in Iran could see prices at the airline go up in the long-term.
He told the BBC that the budget carrier was ‘well-hedged’ – meaning it has significant amounts of fuel bought in advance -but pricing was ‘volatile’.
Fuel typically makes up 20-40% of airlines’ total operating costs.
Many airlines secure supplies at fixed or capped prices, months – and even years – in advance. This process is known as hedging.
It’s a risk management strategy that protects businesses from volatile prices.
Among those known to do so are British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Ryanair and easyJet.
And while the knock-on effect will depend on how long the conflict continues, Marina Efthymiou, Professor of Aviation Management at Dublin City University, tells Metro that for now at least, it’s better to have hedged.
‘Because of hedging, certain airlines are going to be more exposed [to price shocks] than others,’ she says.
‘Who knows what is going to happen, but if the question is which airline is going to perform better during the crisis that is coming, it’s the airlines that have done the most hedging.’
‘Softening demand’
EasyJet has reported increased demand for destinations away from the conflict, including the Canaries, Spain, Portugal, Malta and Greece.
But the airline says there is ‘softening demand’ for Turkey and Cyprus.
On March 1, two days after the US and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran, a suspected drone hit the British military base, RAF Akrotiri, on the southern coast of Cyprus, around 20km southwest of the holiday town of Limassol.
While flights to and from Paphos and Larnaca airports are currently operating as scheduled, local businesses have reported sweeping cancellations.
Hoteliers in the tourist hubs of Ayia Napa, Protaras and Larnaca are warning of a sharp slowdown in bookings ahead of peak season.
Speaking to local outlet Politis, hotel operators in the Famagusta district said cancellations are now affecting mainly April and May, but the flow of new reservations has weakened just as businesses prepare to reopen for summer.