EGPF Forum

easyJet to cut 7 aircraft from their base in Berlin.

The original article link is below (only in German) so I have ran it through translate and will include it below the link in English.

Source: https://www.tagesspiegel.de/berlin/gewe ... 72532.html

Bad news for the Berlin Easy-Jet workforce and the capital's airport: on Tuesday, the British airline announced a massive reduction in the number of pilot and cabin crew jobs at its Berlin location. The company announced that the number of aircraft based in Schönefeld is to be reduced from 18 to eleven from winter 2022.

The airline, which was now the market leader in the capital region after Air Berlin went bankrupt, had already reduced the aircraft fleet at the Berlin location from 34 to 18 aircraft and cut more than 700 jobs. "The planning for the location in Berlin/Brandenburg should contribute to ensuring long-term profitable operation in Germany (T+)", was the reason for the further dismantling.

Reference is made to a weaker than expected recovery in air traffic in Germany, but also to rising airport charges. Discussions will be held with staff representatives.


The Verdi union was shocked and outraged by the announcement. “Especially now that air traffic is picking up, that is incomprehensible. That's how you alienate customers," Verdi union secretary Holger Rößler told the Tagesspiegel. "The planes, also from Easyjet, are full."

I’m not really surprised at this news.

I was in Berlin earlier this month and the low level of Eurowings flights was noticeable together with a complete dearth of TUI and Condor with two Sundair aircraft operating sporadically.

Condor have dropped Turkey completely this summer; AYT was for a long time it’s top destination. Capacity has been switched to Croatia,Greece, Italy, France and Mainland Spain including Nice, Olbia, LaMezia, Rijeka, Split plus VFR routes to Beirut, Sulimnayah and Tbilisi.

Meantime TUI have reduced their German feet further and ditched plans for long haul operations.

Here’s hoping GLA can go back to year round after winter 22/23. If only a 6th aircraft could be based by EZY at GLA it could be the shot in the arm the airport needs.

EasyJet article on Routes Forum stating that they will make more network changes during S22 and planning forward for 23/24 focusing on airports with lowest costs and greatest growth potential.

Two growing airports in the article are LGW and MXP where capacity has been increased especially to the Greek Islands.

Gla1 wrote: ↑Tue May 24, 2022 10:49 pm Here’s hoping GLA can go back to year round after winter 22/23. If only a 6th aircraft could be based by EZY at GLA it could be the shot in the arm the airport needs.

Do we even have the 5th aircraft the full year round?

Aircraft being removed from BER means they will probably be added elsewhere. They may already be assigned to LGW and MXP, but GLA should be pushing for more aircraft. I wonder if FR are outcompeting EZY at BER or if we'll see cuts from them too there.

If we roll back to winter 2017 I think GLA must have had something like 11 or 12 flights pw with FR and EZY (maybe more?), plus EDI had some EZY flights too. It's notable that even EDI-BER with EZY appears to be only 2pw this coming winter and FR 4pw, so a big drop in BER generally from the central belt. In the long term it's a route that GLA has had year round pretty consistently for years, so I'd really hope it could go back to that.