easyJet to temporarily suspend most EX-YU flights

easyJet will be temporarily suspending a number of flights in the former Yugoslavia which it serves on a year-round basis. Affected markets include Slovenia, Serbia and Kosovo.

In Ljubljana, the budget carrier will temporarily discontinue operations from Berlin. Flights will not run until January 8, although only three services are planned during the first month of the year and a further four in February. Operations will then again be suspended for a two-week period - from late February until early March - before being restored to two times per week, increasing to three in April. Furthermore, easyJet, which initially brought forward the launch of its new Luton - Ljubljana service for October 28, has now pushed back the inaugural flight until December 6. As previously reported, the airline has discontinued operations from Stanted to Ljubljana due to its base closure but continues to maintain operations from Gatwick to the Slovenian capital.

In Belgrade, easyJet will run a one weekly service from Basel until October 18, after which the flights will be cancelled until December 6. Operations from Berlin are suspended until December 18, while flights from Geneva will operate once per week until October 23 and will be restored from December 7. Pristina has also been affected, with operations from Berlin cancelled until December 11. Services from Basel and Geneva will continue to run, although frequencies have been notably reduced with operations from Geneva down to just one per week until December. easyJet was Pristina’s second busiest airline last year, handling 268.694 passengers on flights to and from the city.

easyJet, like all other carriers across the world, is struggling with mounting losses and a collapse in demand for air travel. The airline bolstered its finances last week by securing 608 million pounds through the sale and leaseback of parts of its fleet. The low cost carrier has now raised more than 2.4 billion pounds since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, including 600 million from the UK government’s Covid Corporate Financing Facility and just over 400 million from a share placement. It said it would look at future funding opportunities “on a regular basis”.