EasyJet is not expecting travel demand to recover to its pre-coronavirus levels until 2023 and the airline has been under strain due to months without revenues during lockdown. It said in May it needed to cut 4,500 jobs, or 30% of its workforce.
EasyJet had faced pressure from its founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou to cancel the plane order entirely, but other shareholders threw their weight behind management to stick with it. “The changes agreed defer capacity in the medium term while continuing our long-term strategy of replacing our older fleet with the advanced and lower fuel burning A320NEO family,” easyJet Chief Executive Johan Lundgren said in a statement.