EasyJet is to launch hundreds more international flights at airports across the UK from next week

Some flights to and from Scottish airports will resume next week

easyJet has confirmed it will be relaunching more flights from Scotland from 1 July on both domestic and international routes.

On June 15 a small number of domestic easyJet flights began operating from Scotland. The airline will operate 26 routes in July and 34 in August from Edinburgh to destinations across the airline’s European network as well as 6 routes in July and 17 in August from Glasgow.

Domestic flights will also continue to and from Inverness and will resume to and from Aberdeen for the first time since the airline grounded its fleet at the end of March as a result of Covid-19.

Throughout July some international flights will also relaunch from Edinburgh on routes to a variety of city and beach destinations including the city staples of Paris and Madrid; Spanish sun favourites Alicante and Barcelona as well as the Balearics and Canary Islands; and popular beach destinations across Greece and Portugal.

The airline plans to fly around 50 per cent of its 1022 routes in July increasing to around 75% in August, although with a lower frequency of flights equating to around 30 per cent of normal July to September capacity.

During the lockdown period the fleet of aircraft has been maintained in a flight ready condition to enable the airline to resume flights at the right time.

A new range of additional measures are in place to help ensure the safety and wellbeing of all customers and crew onboard.

These include enhanced aircraft disinfection for easyJet aircraft; customers, cabin crew and ground crew will be required to wear masks; there will also initially be no food service onboard flights, all of which operate on a short-haul network.

The measures have been implemented in consultation with aviation authorities ICAO and EASA, and in line with relevant national authorities and medical advice through the airline’s chief medical adviser.

Ali Gayward, easyJet’s UK Country Manager commented: “We are really pleased to be relaunching more flights from Scotland from July 1 and starting to get customers reunited with loved ones, back to work or away on their much-needed summer holidays. With so many families travelling over the peak summer easyJet has teamed up with a superhero illustrator to create comic book inspired face mask covers for children flying this summer to help ease the experience for both kids and parents.

“Irish artist Will Sliney, best known for his work on Marvel comics Spider-Man and Star Wars, has created a range of new comic book inspired face mask covers for young easyJet flyers.

“Of course, the safety and wellbeing of our customers and crew remains our highest priority. This is why we have implemented a number of measures enhancing safety at each part of the journey from disinfecting the aircraft to requiring customers and crew to wear masks. These measures will remain in place for as long as is needed to ensure customers and crew are able to fly safely as the world continues to recover from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.”

The new measures which are in place for when flights begin are as follows:

- Aircraft Cleaning: The additional cleaning and disinfection procedures for aircraft cabins are on top of an existing daily aircraft cleaning schedule. Every aircraft will be subject to a daily disinfection process which provides surface protection from viruses that lasts for at least 24 hours.

- On Board Measures: All passengers and crew will be required to wear masks onboard. Initially when flights restart, the Bistro and Boutique service will not be available. Furthermore, all flights will be equipped with spare sanitary equipment including masks, gloves and hand sanitiser to ensure these are available to customers and crew onboard, if required. easyJet’s aircraft are already fitted with state of art filtration technology. High efficiency particle arresting filters filter 99.97 per cent of airborne contaminants in the cabin, including viruses and bacteria. These filters are the same as those used in hospitals and through them the cabin air gets replaced every 3-4 minutes.

- Airport Measures: To protect customers and ground crew in the airport, customers will be able to use our automated bag drop to check in their hold luggage and screens will be in place at our check in desks and at airports where auto bag drop is not available. Ground crew and cabin will not handle any customer documents during boarding so customers will be asked to present and scan their own documents. easyJet already encourages all customers to check in online and download their boarding pass onto their smart phone or to print their own boarding passes before arriving at the airport. Ground crew will also wear gloves and masks.

Further recommendations for airports indicate there may also be measures in places at airports such as wearing masks, self-declaration health forms to be completed ahead of departure, and temperature screening. The airline is working with all airports where it operates to understand what measures will be in place to protect customers.

- Social Distancing: Customers will be able to practice social distancing in the airports, at gates and during boarding. Onboard, and where possible, customers may be able to sit at distance where seats are available.

easyJet will continue to work with the relevant national authorities to review and assess what measures are required in the longer term.