After taking several measures to strengthen its finances, the airline EasyJet assured, this Thursday, to be able to resist an extended period of paralysis of air traffic due to the coronavirus.
Thanks to "decisive actions", EasyJet "is well positioned to resist prolonged immobilization of planes on the ground," said its general manager Johan Lundgren in a press release.
Bank of England loan
The group, like others in Europe, had to cancel the overwhelming majority of its flights due to the pandemic which led to population confinements and travel restrictions. This is a major challenge for airlines which have huge fixed costs and find themselves deprived of turnover.
EasyJet explains that it now has sufficient cash to cash in a fixed asset even if it were to last nine months, which would then cost it 3 billion pounds of cash. For this, EasyJet obtained 2 billion pounds of financing, including a loan of 600 million pounds from the Treasury and the Bank of England as part of the emergency fund to support the coronavirus.
Partial unemployment and postponement of aircraft deliveries
In addition, the company had to cut costs, put the majority of its employees on short-time work for April and May, or even find an agreement with Airbus to postpone the delivery of 24 aircraft. This postponement even caused the sling of the founder of the group Stelios Haji-Ioannou whose family still owns 34% of the capital and who would have preferred that the group canceled the current order of 107 Airbus to release even more money.
EasyJet has also tackled this crisis in better financial health as evidenced by the improvement in its results for the first half, completed at the end of March, ie at the start of the shock of the pandemic. The company said Thursday expect a loss before tax and excluding exceptional items between 185 and 205 million pounds, less than a year earlier (275 million pounds), knowing that the winter season is never very favorable for the sector.
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