Easyjet cancels 1,700 flights from July to September

The airline has axed flights during July, August and September, travelling to and from Gatwick airport.

Easyjet blamed constrained airspace over Europe and ongoing air traffic control difficulties, which are causing regular cancellations.

The company said 95% of affected passengers had been rebooked onto alternative flights.

Easyjet announced the decision as many schools in England and Wales prepare to break-up for the summer holidays.

The company said the cancellations roughly represent the equivalent of one day's worth of flights. It will still operate about 90,000 journeys over the period.

A spokesperson said the whole airline industry was seeing "challenging conditions this summer" as the closure of Ukrainian airspace due to Russia's war caused congestion in the skies and disrupted flights.

They also said planned strikes by air traffic controllers in Europe could have an impact.

"We have therefore made some pre-emptive adjustments to our programme consolidating a small number of flights at Gatwick, where we have multiple daily frequencies, in order to help mitigate these external challenges on the day of travel for our customers," the spokesperson said.

"Customers whose flights are affected are being informed, with 95% of customers being rebooked onto an alternative flight and all customers provided with the option to rebook or receive a refund."

Last year a huge increase in demand following the easing of Covid travel restrictions coincided with major staff shortages at airlines and airports, leading to long queues and many cancelled flights.

Across 2022 as a whole more than a third of UK flights were delayed.

Airlines and airports have claimed to be in a much better position this year, but say the situation in Ukraine and air traffic problems could create difficulties.

Walkouts by French air traffic controllers have caused disruption in the first half of the year.

And Eurocontrol, which manages flights over Europe, says one of its unions could take industrial action this summer, although no dates have been announced yet.

Negotiations are continuing with unions and experts say the potential impact of any strikes is unclear.

It comes as demand for flights is returning to pre-Covid pandemic levels, but industry body Airlines UK last week said airlines have "made huge efforts since the pandemic to build resilience into operations".

It added that its members were "looking forward to a busy summer, meeting growing demand for travel and carrying millions of people on holidays".

-bbc