easyJet Hints at a New Phase of Growth with the New Birmingham Base

EasyJet opened its ninth UK Base, but the first new base in the UK in over ten years at Birmingham Airport. The new base directly supports a total of 1200 employees in the UK and creates 140 direct jobs for crew and pilots.

The new Birmingham hub, with direct connections with the major European city airports like Amsterdam, Geneva, Paris Charles de Gaulle, and Berlin Brandenburg, will also serve easyJet’s millions of business passengers to and from the UK each year.

The UK airline, which is growing at the fastest rate this summer, and easyJet Holidays, which is growing at the fastest rate among UK vacation companies, are entering a new phase of growth with the launch of the base.

Currently, 56% of easyJet’s operations are focused on flights into the UK and this year, the airline is running its largest-ever UK program with the addition of four new aircraft to its fleet. More than 57 million seats will be available for purchase to and from the UK, an increase of around 10% over the previous year. Next year will see the addition of more aircraft to the fleet, continuing the airline’s growth.

Birmingham’s economy, which is larger than Hungary’s and the biggest in the UK outside of London and the South East, offers easyJet tremendous growth prospects in the Midlands, which is a crucial component of easyJet’s strategy. In addition to providing important UK domestic connectivity outside of London, each UK-based aircraft directly supports 400 jobs and generates £27 million in UK gross value added (GVA) when direct, indirect, and induced effects are taken into account.

EasyJet is the biggest leisure airline in the United Kingdom. Since its base opened, the airline’s share of the Birmingham leisure market has increased by more than three times in comparison to the previous year.

This summer is predicted to be the busiest ever for easyJet Holidays, and the airline’s passenger count at Birmingham is predicted to increase by almost 60% from the previous year. 

Johan Lundgren, CEO of easyJet, said, “We are excited to open our newest UK base at Birmingham today, providing more choice, competition and connectivity as well as supporting over 1200 jobs for the region. This base is enabling us to unlock the opportunity of the strong demand which exists for both leisure and business travel, as well as further grow our share of the package holiday market. We see much untapped potential at the airport providing the opportunity to grow further in future years.”

Nick Barton, CEO of Birmingham Airport (BHX), said, ”Today sees our growing partnership with easyJet reach new heights as the airline bases three aircraft here at Birmingham Airport. Customers can now take advantage of the airline’s 16 new routes and have the flexibility of flight only or a full package holiday.  easyJet has been a partner airline for 17 years.  Its expansion here at Birmingham Airport is a testament to the service, quality, price, reliability and choice of destination that its customers have come to expect. We are looking forward to working with easyJet to further grow its destination list for our customers.” 

Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands, said, “easyJet’s decision to set up this new base at BHX will be warmly welcomed by thousands of holidaymakers across the West Midlands and beyond. The increase in destinations is not only great news for those heading off to the sun this summer but also for our business community, helping them forge new overseas trade links. easyJet’s decision is also a vote of confidence in Birmingham Airport and the people working in our aviation industry. The new base will support hundreds of jobs and help the airport to grow and thrive in the years ahead.”

EasyJet currently operates important domestic and international services from Birmingham to popular beach and urban locations, including Faro, Palma de Mallorca, Amsterdam, Geneva, Milan, Naples, Lisbon, and Birmingham. 

EasyJet offers direct flights on over one-third of the 30 underserved or unserved routes to Europe from Birmingham. With current operations serving all but two of those destinations, the airline has a clear and significant opportunity to capture this market. In the upcoming months, the airline plans to launch additional routes from Birmingham and other locations in the UK for the winter.

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