- easyJet will base a sixth aircraft at its Glasgow base from next summer creating around 40 local job opportunities at the airport
- The move comes after easyJet operated its biggest ever Scottish summer flying programme, flew a record number of passengers and launched six new routes from Scotland in its 2023 financial year
- New routes from Edinburgh to Rovaniemi in Lapland will take off next month and inaugural flights to Rome, Larnaca and Enfidha from Glasgow are set to take off for the first time next summer
Scotland’s largest airline easyJet has today revealed it will base an additional aircraft at Glasgow from next summer. The move comes after the airline operated its biggest ever summer flying programme in Scotland and flew a record 7 million passengers to and from Scotland in its 2023 financial year.
The arrival of a sixth aircraft at its Glasgow base will enable the airline to offer customers in Scotland even more choice and greater connectivity across the UK, Europe and beyond, as well as creating around 40 local job opportunities at the airport. easyJet already employs around 685 crew in Scotland and with the addition of the sixth aircraft easyJet expects to have nearly 300 employees based in Glasgow including pilots, cabin crew and base management.
The new neo aircraft will join two 156-seat Airbus A319, two 186-seat A320, and one 186-seat A320neo aircraft already serving the airline’s customers in Glasgow. Compared to the current generation of aircraft, the Airbus NEO brings significant environmental benefits and operational efficiencies compared to the previous generation of aircraft, resulting in at least 15% less CO2 emissions and 50% less noise during take-off and landing.
easyJet has also recently expanded at its Edinburgh base, where it welcomed the arrival of a ninth aircraft over the summer, meaning the airline now has 15 easyJet aircraft based in Scotland operating across 84 routes.
easyJet’s Scottish network has gone from strength to strength over the last year with six new routes including new services to Antalya, Santorini, and Catania from Edinburgh and Belfast City, Lisbon and Porto from Glasgow. The airline has already announced nine new routes for its 2024 financial year to Hurghada and Rome from both Edinburgh and Glasgow, Rovaniemi in Lapland and Bordeaux from Edinburgh and services to Southampton, Larnaca and Enfidha which will operate from Glasgow next summer.
Ali Gayward, easyJet UK Country Manager, commented:
“We are proud to be Scotland’s largest airline and are delighted to have carried a record 7 million customers in our last financial year, offering a fantastic network of 84 routes across four Scottish airports – Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Inverness.
“We continue to see opportunity in Scotland which is why we are pleased to be basing an additional aircraft in Glasgow from next summer to offer our customers even more choice, like our new routes to Enfidha and Larnaca, providing more connectivity to popular destinations across the UK, Europe and beyond, all with great value fares and a warm welcome onboard.”
Matt Hazelwood, Chief Commercial Officer at AGS Airports, said:
“easyJet’s decision to introduce a sixth based aircraft is a huge endorsement of our continued recovery and testament to a fantastic relationship between the airline and Glasgow Airport that stretches back more than 27 years to the airline’s inaugural flight.
“This is a significant investment given that the introduction of a yet another based aircraft brings with it and will support approximately 40 new jobs at Glasgow Airport.
“It has been a bumper year for both airport and airline not only celebrating the 40-million passenger landmark earlier this year, but we also welcome a number of new routes which are proving popular with our passengers.”
easyJet connects Scotland to major cities across Europe like Paris and Amsterdam, as well as to a range of fantastic leisure destinations such as Alicante, Tunisia, Turkey and Egypt, ski routes including Lyon, Basel and Geneva and offers more seats on domestic routes to and from Scotland than any other airline, offering value fares and a convenient schedule for both leisure and business travellers.
easyJet operates up to 1000 flights to and from Scotland a week and has flown over 109 million passengers from Scotland since operations began,
For more information on easyJet’s network from Scotland, visit easyJet.com.