Aviation. ″ EasyJet wants to grow in Portugal ″ and if there are slots available in Lisbon, it wants as much as possible
easyJet has been in Portugal for nearly two decades and has an ambition: it wants to continue to grow. An obstacle to this growth is the lack of slots – slots that allow take-off and landing – in particular at Lisbon airport. For this reason, José Lopes, general director of easyJet for Portugal, assumes that a low-cost company is monitoring the progress of the construction process for TAP – which does not yet express the green light from Brussels – and that if the European Commission approves the document, but ask for a reduction of slots to TAP, an easyJet is interested.
“We want to continue to grow, especially in Lisbon and Porto”, assumed the responsible, who did not hide that in Porto there have been more opportunities to acquire slots than in the capital. “We are closely following the process of TAP’s process and we are going to see how it unfolds. What we make clear: easyJet wants to grow in Portugal. If there is any slots We will be available “with as much as possible,” he said at a press conference this Wednesday in Funchal José Lopes.
The leader of the low-cost airline for the domestic market assured that the company wants to grow 8% an operation this year – the fiscal year for the company started on October 1st. “For 2022, we expect to operate 8% more than we had before the pandemic in 2019. We are talking about a 117% increase over what we did last year (fiscal year ended September 30, 2021), he said.
Since December 1, 2021, new rules for entry into Portugal have been in force. The Government decided that airlines have to verify that passengers traveling to Portugal – final or in transit – have to submit a negative test to covid-19 at the time of boarding. If they do not comply with these rules, a fine of between 20 and 40 thousand euros per passenger may be applied to the carriers. José Lopes argued that the prime minister’s statements were “harsh” and “unfair” for a large part of the aviation sector.
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He admitted that the carrier is complying with the rules determined by the Executive and are asking the easyJet teams that deal with passengers, after the flights, to sign a document confirming that they have checked all the people. It recognizes that there are cars that were collected relative to passengers who flew with a low cost but who have not paid any fines yet. And he warned that there are airlines that are writing to the government saying they are thinking of canceling an entire operation in Faro this winter.
Regarding the potential impact of the restrictions in force on entry into Portugal, as well as the new variant, the leader of easyJet says that “the impact on demand was not necessarily due to the variant but to the restrictions and, in the case of Portugal, because of” restrictions that came into effect on day 1, prior to the proliferation of Ómicron. “We felt, and at the time, restricts the impact on demand – associated with a positive trend, even above the European average – and from the restrictions on the power of attorney eliminated the negative. But there was no cancellation of flights, except when the Swiss government forced the quarantine “he added.
* Journalist traveled at the invitation of easyJet