European LCC easyJet has fully grounded its fleet of more than 330 aircraft during what should have been the first week of a busy summer season.

Over recent days the airline has been helping to repatriate customers, having operated more than 650 rescue flights to date, returning about 45,000 passengers home.

The last of these rescue flights were operated on March 29, following which the LCC has now grounded its all-Airbus fleet. However, easyJet said it would continue to work with government bodies to operate additional rescue flights as requested.

“I am extremely proud of the way in which people across easyJet have given their absolute best at such a challenging time, including so many crew who have volunteered to operate rescue flights to bring our customers home,” CEO Johan Lundgren said.

“We are working tirelessly to ensure that easyJet continues to be well positioned to overcome the challenges of coronavirus.”

The LCC added it would “take every action” to remove cost and non-critical expenditure from the business “at every level” in order to help mitigate the impact from COVID-19.

According to schedules data filed during the first week of February 2020, easyJet planned to operate 12,118 scheduled flights this week (w/c March 30) and offer 2.1 million seats.

The airline’s busiest route would have been between London Gatwick (LGW) and Amsterdam (AMS), with 102 flights and 17,832 seats planned. The carrier intended to operate from 149 airports in total, offering 817 routes.

EasyJet said at this stage there can be no certainty of the date for restarting commercial flights.

Photo credit: easyJet