EasyJet Chief Operating Officer (COO) Peter Bellew has quit following a string of flight cancellations and disruptions at the airline in recent weeks.
A trade union had earlier criticized the airline last month for having “a lack of leadership” and urged Bellew to “take control.”
Unite, a trade union, criticized the airline last month for having “a lack of leadership” and urged Bellew to “take control.”
EasyJet CEO Johan Lundgren stated the company was “totally focused on delivering a safe and reliable operation this summer” when announcing Bellew’s resignation.
David Morgan, who he described as “extremely capable,” will fill the position of interim chief operating officer, and “will give excellent leadership for the airline this summer,” according to him.
Director of flight operations since 2016, Morgan has been a member of EasyJet. In 2019, he served as the airline’s interim chief operating officer and oversaw all aspects of operations.
During the Covid epidemic, the airline industry lost thousands of jobs, but it is now having difficulty keeping up with the uptick in demand for travel.
One of the airlines with the most cancellations in recent months was EasyJet. Thousands of flights have been cancelled as a result, many on the day of departure.
The airline informed the BBC that it will not be making any additional cancellation announcements this week and that the final affected passengers would be notified today.
Approximately 150,000 of the 160,000 flights originally planned to operate during the months of July, August, and September are expected to proceed. Consequently, about 10,000 cancellations, or about 6 per cent, have occurred.
The airline claimed that most of its scheduled flights would not be impacted by the cancellations and that it would continue to operate up to 1,700 flights daily.
After the announcement, EasyJet shares, one of the largest decliners on the FTSE250, were trading down around 3 per cent, returning to their early epidemic lows of March 2020.