UK low-cost airline EasyJet lost 15 million pounds ($19.4 million) due to the disruptions that happened at London's Gatwick Airport in December because of drone sightings, the company said in a statement on Tuesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd January, 2019) UK low-cost airline EasyJet lost 15 million Pounds ($19.4 million) due to the disruptions that happened at London's Gatwick Airport in December because of drone sightings, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.
On December 19, all flights from Gatwick Airport were canceled for 33 hours after two drones were spotted flying over the airport. More than 100,000 people were affected by the shutdown. According to the police, this incident was not connected with terrorism.
"Canceled flights and lost revenue resulting from the drone issue at London Gatwick (c. �5m revenue impact) ... A �10 million cost impact of the drones at Gatwick relating to customer welfare costs ... The incident affected around 82,000 customers and led to over 400 flights being canceled," the statement read.
EasyJet Chief Executive Johan Lundgren further said in the statement that while the company had started the year of well, it was negatively affected by the drone incident in Gatwick Airport.
"EasyJet has made a good start to the 2019 financial year with robust customer demand and ancillary sales, driving solid revenue generation. This was underpinned by good operating and on-time performance across the network, with the exception of the disruption caused by the Gatwick closures due to drone sightings," Lundgren said.
Despite a loss of 10 million pounds in customer welfare costs and 5 million pounds in revenue caused by the drone incident, EasyJet reported revenues of 1.3 billion pounds in the three months prior to December 31, a 13.7 percent increase year-to-year. Passenger numbers have gone up 15.1 percent to 21.6 million people.
