easyJet Establishes Lisbon Base

Posted 28/10/2011

UK carrier easyJet is to open a base at Lisbon Airport in Portugal in April 2012 to expand its network from the Portuguese capital.  The airline already serves Lisbon from 16 destinations, but will base two of its Airbus A319s in the city to introduce new flights to Amsterdam, Asturias, Bordeaux, Copenhagen and Venice from April 18 next year.  In the past year it handled around 1.4 million O&D passengers on its flights from Lisbon, but expects this figure to rise by around a 15 per cent in its first year as a base.

easyJet is already the second largest operator at Lisbon Airport with 72 weekly flights, offering more than 11,000 seats every week from the facility.  It currently accounts for 6.9 per cent of the total weekly seat capacity, second only to national carrier TAP Portugal, which has a 66.5 per cent share. 

“We are delighted to be confirming easyJet’s new base in Lisbon. It illustrates our long-term commitment to the market and it will enable us to grow our operations further,” said Catherine Lynn, Customer and Revenue Director, easyJet.  “Along with significantly contributing to the local economy, our new base will also boost visitors to Lisbon - with over two million passengers travelling to and from Lisbon, and more million in and out of Portugal in the first year, all travelling with easyJet.”

The carrier plans to develop a network to make travel easier, offering more frequencies and early morning departures, which will enable Portuguese business travellers to take return trips within the same day to key European cities.  The airline currently carries more than 100,000 O&D passengers on five of its routes to Lisbon: Madrid (around 264,000), Funchal (201,000), London Luton (149,000), Paris CDG (137,000) and London Gatwick (110,000).

easyJet will initially offer four flights per week to Amsterdam, Bordeaux and Asturias from April 18, with three times weekly services to Copenhagen and Venice starting the following day, when the new base will be officially inaugurated.  Only the Asturias route is not currently served from the Portuguese capital: TAP Portugal currently serves the other four destinations, while Air France has flights to Bordeaux and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and Transavia to Amsterdam.

The base announcement follows just weeks after easyJet also confirmed plans to expand in the French market with two aircraft being stationed at Nice and Toulouse for summer 2012.  The carrier already has three bases in the country – Paris Orly, Paris CDG and Lyon) and says it will have a French fleet of 24 aircraft next year. 

It has yet to reveal its precise operational plans for the two bases but confirms that it will expand its network by around ten routes, split equally between the two airports.  At Nice these will include domestic links to Bordeaux and Nantes, while from Toulouse its new flights will comprise the city destinations of Basel and Brussels.  easyJet also plans to offer links between the two bases, a route currently flown by Air France and Vueling Airlines (the Spanish carrier also has a base at Toulouse).

“France is a strategic market for easyJet, where the airline - already the country’s second largest - clearly has room to grow.  Low-cost penetration is only 24 per cent - half the European average.  This strategic investment will allow us to strengthen our position in one of Europe’s key markets,” said Catherine Lynn.

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