It’s safe to say that the last couple of months have been tough for easyJet PLC.
One of Britain’s biggest budget airlines has already been forced to cancel thousands of flights this year, with staff shortages brought on by Covid cited as the main reason.
Naturally, this has led to nightmare holidays, with many customers stranded for days abroad, albeit in popular holiday destinations like Milan and Ibiza
Today, it announced that it will be culling further flights over the summer, with Gatwick Airport introducing a flight cap to help deal with its own staff shortages.
easyJet so far has continued to entice customers in with its cheaper than most prices, despite it not having the greatest reputation at even the best of times.
However, leaving thousands of customers stranded abroad or forcing them to miss their holiday isn’t the best look for an airline, and it may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Cost over reputation?
As mentioned above, easyJet and other budget airlines such as Ryanair have managed to remain successful because of how cheap it is to use their service.
Consequentially, it’s never really had to worry about its reputation too much.
And, despite all the cancellations, some industry experts don’t think any permanent damage has been done to easyJet yet.
“easyJet is not the only airline to take a battering in current media coverage,” said John Strickland, director at air transport consultancy JLS Consulting.
“It is well aware of its need to improve performance and is taking further action.”
“A number of factors are outside of its control such as recent ATC challenges at Gatwick airport where easyJet has its highest concentration of activity.”
“Without underestimating the anger of disrupted customers, based on the experience of the whole covid pandemic and other serious disruptions affecting airlines and assuming that operational integrity is recovered in the coming months I do not expect permanent long-term damage to easyJet's reputation,” Strickland added.
That belief is supported by Simon Wandsworth, a managing partner at online reputation management firm Igniyte.
Wandsworth adds that “people understand it’s a wider issue beyond just the airlines.”
“I think the thing that people want most is notice and if they (easyJet) are mindful of this then this will limit the long-term impact on their reputation.”
For the time being, it seems customers will continue to put price above reputation when deciding on who to fly with.
That isn’t to say however that, should the situation worsen, travelling Brits will start to look elsewhere.
Shares fell 0.6% to 434.6p.