Holidaymakers value reliability – airlines need to remember that even given the tough time over Covid-19

The chief executive of easyJet, Johan Lundgren, has said he is ‘confident’ in the company’s summer plans – let us hope his faith in a quick return to normality is justified, says Simon Calder

‘EasyJet says only one in 20 of its flights is currently being cancelled’ (PA)

Imagine heading a business losing £2,000 per minute. That is the burden that Johan Lundgren, chief executive of easyJet, endured through the six months from October 2021 to March 2022.

The old aviation joke has never been more appropriate. How do you become a millionaire? Begin as a billionaire and start an airline. Yet a few hours after easyJet’s latest trading statement revealed the scale of the loss, the boss of Britain's biggest budget airline was in a positive mood.

“We remain confident in our plans which will see us reaching near 2019 flying levels for this summer and emerge as one of the winners in the recovery.”

Lundgren deserves a break. On taking the helm at easyJet in 2017, he had to deal with a Brexit shambles that was particularly cruel on a British airline that had become immensely successful in Europe.

In 2020, aviation was one of the first industries to be hit by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic across the globe. It will be one of the last to recover. In the depths of the crisis, British ministers were making such bizarre rules around travel that easyJet pivoted away from the UK – which at one point fell to only 30 per cent of the airline’s business. It has now recovered to 50 per cent. But Covid has pivoted from a problem of demand through incoherent travel restrictions to a problem of supply, specifically staffing.

On the day easyJet’s chief executive briefed the media and the markets, 5,000 of the passengers on which the airline depends found they were not flying to or from Gatwick as expected. The under-strength carrier cancelled a now-usual 32 flights to and from its main base, with holiday departures to Italian and Greek islands hard hit. (British Airways is doing even worse out of its hub at Heathrow, with 50 departures and arrivals grounded.)

While easyJet says only one in 20 of its flights is currently being cancelled, on a precious family holiday those odds are unappealing. Travellers and shareholders alike value reliability. Let us hope Johan Lundgren’s confidence in a quick return to normality is justified.