Easyjet announce reduced winter flights to Spain

The lowcost airline proposes to shed Barajas as a hub

Flight statistic released earlier in the week, show just how many of Spain's tourists use the so-called "low cost airlines, "with 60% of passengers coming in on low costs, 58% of them on Ryanair , Easyjet amd Air Berlin.

So it's disappointing to see Easyjet announcing that the number of Easyjet flights to and from Spain is to be cut by 7% in the winter season of 2012-13, due mainly to the decision to stop using Madrid-Barajas as an operational hub where planes and crew are based.

The announcement was made by the low-cost airline this Wednesday, when the company’s press release stated that the profitability of the Madrid hub was lower than other strategic bases used by Easyjet throughout Europe. This is due, they say, to the “over capacity in the Spanish airline market, leading to low revenue per passenger, combined with high airport charges which have more than doubled in the last two years and will be subject to further above inflation increases in the coming years.”

However, the airline is by no means pulling out of Spain. Despite the changes, Easyjet hopes to transport more than 12 million passengers to and from the country next year, and they estimate that their capacity will increase by around 5% in their current accounting year, which ends in September. Through tight cost controls and strict capital assignment management the company is optimistic that it can continue to achieve positive results.

The company currently operates over 580 routes in around 30 countries, and has at its disposal over 200 aircraft based at 23 different locations in the UK and the rest of Europe. The company “is now reviewing a range of options for its eight Madrid based aircraft and 310 crew”, but hopes to maintain as many of its staff as possible.

So far this year a total of 22.3 million passengers have flown to Spain from abroad, 56.3% or them on low-cost airlines (a marginally smaller proportion than last year).

Of the low-cost arrivals in May, those from the UK, Germany and Italy accounted for two thirds, including 37.8% from Britain, and the number of people arriving from Germany was up 3.4% compared to May 2011, accounting for almost 20% of the total. Murcia is almost totally dependant on the "low costs".

In Murcia during May 2012, 60,716 of our international passenger traffic was "low cost" as opposed to just 1457 who used traditional airlines.

Aena announced increases in charges for using Spanish airports earlier this spring, due to the enormous losses being made during the last few years and the need to convert to a more efficient and cost-effective management model.