Easyjet scraps Irish routes

[White Cap]

Source: The Sunday Times (UK)
June 18, 2006

Easyjet scraps Irish routes
Dominic O’Connell

THE low-cost airline Easyjet is set to axe flights on three key routes where it competes head-to-head with Ryanair.
Aviation industry sources say Easyjet is to drop its flights from Gatwick to Shannon, Knock and Cork in Ireland.

The services were started in January last year. Ryanair responded by launching competing services from Gatwick.

Easyjet’s decision is significant because the two airlines, the largest low-cost carriers in Europe, have to date largely avoided competing directly against each other.

The Irish routes were one of the few areas where both airlines offered services.

An Easyjet spokesman would not confirm the decision yesterday, saying that the future of the services was under review and that they would continue to operate until the end of September.

“We expect to be making an announcement on these services shortly,” he said.

But the aviation sources said a recent announcement by Easyjet of other services from Gatwick — extra frequencies to Madrid, Milan, Cologne, Athens, Berlin and Amsterdam, and a new service to Glasgow — had masked the end of the Irish routes.

Meanwhile, Easyjet has been forced to suspend sales of a new flight from Luton to Istanbul. The service was to have started on June 29, but has been put on hold because the Turkish authorities have not granted permission.

Flights within the European Union — which includes most of Easyjet’s route network — do not require approval by national governments. But Turkey is not a member of the EU.

The Easyjet spokesman confirmed that the launch of the service had been de- layed because of regulatory difficulties.

Easyjet’s chief executive, Andy Harrison, is understood to have flown to Istanbul to press his case with the Turkish government.