Easyjet will sack up to 5,000 staff and close its bases at Stansted, Southend and Newcastle airports
- Luton-based carrier to close hubs at Stansted, Southend and Newcastle airports
- Airline announced last month it was reducing its workforce by up to 30 per cent
EasyJet has today revealed up to 5,000 staff will lose their jobs as it closes three of its bases across the UK.
The low cost airline is proposing to close bases at London’s Stansted and Southend airports and at Newcastle in north east England, union BALPA said in a statement.
Some 727 of its UK-based pilots are at risk of redundancy, equivalent to about one-third of its pilots in the country.
A spokesman for BALPA said it was ‘shocked’ by the scale of the job cuts.
EasyJet said in May it needed to cut 4,500 jobs to stay competitive after the coronavirus pandemic caused a travel market slump.
EasyJet has today revealed up to 5,000 staff will lose their jobs as it closes three of its bases across the UK
Balpa general secretary Brian Strutton said: ‘We know that aviation is in the midst of the Covid crisis and we had been expecting easyJet to make an announcement of temporary measures to help the airline through to recovery.
‘But this seems an excessive over reaction and easyJet won’t find a supply of pilots waiting to come back when the recovery takes place over the next two years.’