EasyJet remove seats to fly with fewer cabin crew

UK airlines are taking extreme measures to cope with labour shortages. Photo / Elio Santos, Unsplash

A European budget carrier has been pulling seats from planes, in order to spread diminished crew numbers further this summer.

EasyJet is reportedly battling staff shortages and a surge of travel demand. In a drastic measure to spread staff further they have removed the back row of seats on their A319 fleet.

This fix might seem counterintuitive, however by reducing passengers to below 150 they can fly with three cabin crew, instead of four.

UK Civil Aviation Authority bases crew regulations on seats rather than passengers - so seats have had to be physically removed, reports the BBC.

Passenger airlines have been struggling to build back staff laid off during the Covid-19 pandemic. Based on this drastic move by EasyJet, passengers have been quicker to return to planes than cabin crew, following the removal of travel restrictions in the UK and Europe.

In April British Airways and other carriers were forced to cancel hundreds of flights following a surge in infections requiring staff to isolate. Crew rosters have been hard to predict and schedules had to follow.

Experts predict a further 12 months of travel chaos as new crew are trained to replace redundancies.

EasyJet says that the changes to their A319 fleet will allow them to operate with more certainty and meet CAA safety standards. The airline expects close to 300,000 passengers a day this summer, almost the pre-pandemic peak.

Cancellations from crew shortages have reportedly left passengers 'stranded' over the Easter break, blaming "higher than usual levels of staff absence". 100 EasyJet services and 60 BA flights were cancelled, causing travel chaos that was compounded by disruptions to P&O ferry routes.

UK transport secretary Grant Shapps recently allowed airports to begin training staff without security clearance after it emerged delays in granting clearance were holding up training for additional UK flight crew.

Additional shortages in airport and border force staff have meant that disruption could continue well into the year. Heathrow Airport and the Immigration Services Union told the BBC that travellers should prepare for a "very difficult summer".