Budget airline EasyJet offers employees a $1,200 bonus as it seeks to bolster staffing amid a resurgence in air travel
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- EasyJet will pay new recruits and existing employees the one-off sum at the end of the summer.
- Passenger numbers are returning to pre-pandemic levels, the carrier says.
- Some carriers have had to trim their schedules due to staffing constraints.
European budget airline EasyJet will pay its staff a £1,000 ($1,200) bonus as it seeks to battle staff shortages amid a recovery in air travel.
The carrier will pay new recruits and existing employees the one-off sum at the end of the summer, as demand for flights returns to near pre-pandemic levels, the airline told Insider on Monday.
Carriers laid off swathes of staff at the height of the pandemic as travel shriveled, but are now struggling to staff flights as an easing in lockdown restrictions spurs renewed demand. Last week, EasyJet announced that it will remove a row of seats from some of its planes so it can operate flights with fewer cabin crew.
"EasyJet will be paying its cabin crew a recognition payment at the end of the summer season to recognise their contribution to the operation this summer, which is expected to be back at near 2019 levels for the first time since the pandemic," EasyJet said.
The budget carrier is hoping that the bonus will help it boost staffing after insufficient personnel resulted in cancellation of hundreds of flights, the BBC reported on Monday.
Other airlines have had to amend their schedules as a result of staffing issues. JetBlue cut the number of its flights operating in May by between 8 % and 10%, while Alaska Airlines said it would trim its schedule by 2% until the end of June due to a pilot shortage, CNBC reported.
British Airways said it would reduce its flight schedule by 10% between March and October as a result of the labor squeeze, the Financial Times previously reported.
While airlines continue to gear up for a strong summer season, Europe's largest discount airline warned Monday that the recovery in the sector remains susceptible to factors such as the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and any resurgence of COVID-19.
In a statement, Dublin-based Ryanair said that its recovery is "fragile," evidenced by how the Omicron variant and Russia's invasion of Ukraine "immediately damaged close-in bookings and yields for the Christmas and Easter peak travel periods."
The company's chief executive officer, Michael O'Leary told Bloomberg Television Monday that it was cutting its airfares over the next quarter to ensure its aircraft were full.
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