Against the backdrop of a crippling cabin crew shortage, easyJet (London Luton) will remove seats from its UK-based A319-100s in order to reduce the number of required crew.
"This summer, we will be operating our UK A319 fleet with a maximum of 150 passengers on board and three crew in line with Civil Aviation Authority regulations. This is an effective way of operating our fleet while building additional resilience and flexibility into our operation this summer where we expect to be back to near 2019 levels of flying," the low-cost carrier said in a statement issued to British media.
The ch-aviation fleets module shows that easyJet UK (U2, London Luton) currently operates sixty-two A319-100s, each of them equipped with 156 seats. The airline has to physically remove six seats as regulations governing the number of crew are based on seat numbers, not passengers. The UK CAA requires airlines to have at least one cabin crew member for every 50 passengers.
The removal of the six seats from each of the 62 aircraft will reduce the LCC's A319s' total capacity by 3.8% and easyJet UK's overall capacity by just 0.7%.
The airline does not plan to adjust the number of seats on its A320-200s (186 seats), A320-200Ns (186 seats), and A321-200NXs (235 seats).
easyJet is one of many carriers affected by the staffing issues plaguing the European aviation industry, which are the result of slow post-COVID re-hiring, continued absenteeism due to high COVID-19 cases, and delays in getting security clearance for the newly (re)hired staff.
