easyJet to pull out of East Midlands Airport, cut overall capacity

easyJet Airlines, the budget carrier based in London, the United Kingdom, has announced that it will withdraw from East Midlands Airport, in North-West Leicestershire, England, on January 5, 2010.

The airline said in a statement that it is pulling out of East Midlands Airport because of “financial reasons.”

easyJet Airlines operates flights from Leicestershire to domestic destinations as well as international destinations, including Prague (the Czech Republic), Majorca (Spain), and Venice (Italy).

easyJet said it will also reduce the number of flights it operates between London Luton Airport and Glasgow International Airport, and between London Luton Airport and Edinburgh International Airport – two of the biggest airports in Scotland – from January 5, 2010.

The decision to cut fights is a part of the carrier’s plan to slash overall capacity at London Luton Airport by 20% from January 5, 2010, easyJet said in the statement.

The 20% cut in the services of easyJet from London Luton Airport will result in abolishing flights from Luton Airport to Vienna (Austria), Athens (Greece) and Cagliari (Italy) as well as reduction in flight frequencies on many routes, including Dortmund (Germany), Geneva (Switzerland), Alicante (Spain), and Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport and Nice International Airport (France).

Business passengers and holidaymakers with flights booked to travel from January 6, 2010, from East Midlands Airport, will be offered either a full refund, or a free transfer to another easyJet flight, or a free transfer to a flight, from Castle Donington, of bmibaby, the low-cost subsidiary airline of the Britain-based carrier bmi. (bmibaby also operates from East Midlands Airport).

All flights of easyJet will operate as usual till January 5, 2010.

In the statement, easyJet said it is contacting all of its customers who will be affected by the airline’s puling out of East Midlands Airport. The airline said it “apologizes” to its customers from East Midlands Airport for the inconvenience caused them.

Penny Coates, managing director of East Midlands Airport, said in a press release that East Midlands Airport will not, however, lose any routes because of easyJet withdrawing from the airport. “We are disappointed,” Coates added, that easyJet is leaving the East Midlands region in 2010, “but our passengers will be pleased to hear that all the routes that were operated by easyJet are still available with other low-cost carriers.”

A spokesman of easyJet said that the 107 employees – pilots and cabin crew – based at East Midlands Airport, who requested for transfer to other easyJet bases, will be “accommodated.”

He added that easyJet plans to move the capacity at East Midlands Airport to “more profitable airports” and that the carrier is still committed to an overall growth target of 7.5% a year over the medium-term.