Watch out if you use easyJet for business travel as the company have announced they are abandoning their flights to and from East Midlands Airport, but are continuing to take bookings for flights going out from the airport.

There are currently nine flights per day leaving the airport by easyJet affecting 33,000 passengers every month. So if you’ve already booked flights, where does that leave you?

Although easyJet says they haven’t made any final decisions about their future at the airport the Chief Executive is quoted on their website as saying:

“We cannot see a growing long-term future and we have decided to move our assets to markets with better long-term potential.”

easyJet says that if these flights do cease then those customers who have booked flights after the New Year will have the option of getting a refund or transferring to another airport. However they are unable to offer this service now.

This could cause huge problems if another airport is less convenient or you find your business trip dates don’t tally with the flights available.
The closet airport to East Midlands is 37 miles away at Birmingham International. This is a good hour’s drive and most easyJet flights leave from London Luton Airport taking an hour and half to get to by car.

easyJet advised that they were still evaluating their position with East Midlands after launching a 90 day consultation period with staff. They went on to say:

“We will contact those affected customers at the end of the 90 days and inform them of the outcome of the consultation. This will be in early December 2009. If any decision is made to close the East Midlands operation, we will offer customers the opportunity to transfer their booking to a different easyJet flight at an alternative airport, or a full refund.”

This type of break to service is likely to increase easyJet complaints. If you are looking to book tickets with an airline it can be a sensible idea to check out airline reviews for flights for business so you know what to expect and are aware of any disruption to flight schedules.

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