easyJet cancels flights back from Egypt until December

Exclusive: Holidaymakers in Sharm El Sheikh could not find flights home to Manchester for four weeks

Ground stop: easyJet has cancelled hundreds of flights over the next four weeks. (Simon Calder)

As another four-week stretch of lockdown begins in England, Britain's biggest budget airline has grounded hundreds of flights rather than operating near-empty aircraft.

The easyJet cancellations include the longest flight on its network, from Sharm El Sheikh to Manchester.

But the airline’s email to holidaymakers in the Egyptian resort failed to make clear their entitlement to be routed home on other airlines.

The email talks of “the three options that are available to you”.

The first is: “Switch to another flight for free. You can change onto any easyJet flight yourself via Manage Bookings.”

The second is to accept an easyJet voucher, and the third to get a cash refund.

One family who contacted The Independent were due to fly from Sharm El Sheikh to Manchester on 7 November. They inferred from the email they had no option but to wait a further four weeks in Egypt – with the earliest easyJet flight scheduled for 5 December.

“We have been told to rearrange the flight but the next one is in December,” they said.

“Where do we go from here? Surely there is a responsibility to repatriate?”

Under European air passengers’ rights rules, passengers are entitled to be flown home on other airlines at easyJet’s expense. The obvious alternative to the 2,555-mile nonstop link is on Pegasus from Sharm El Sheikh via Istanbul to Manchester.

Matthew Buffey, spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Authority said: “Passengers who have seen their flights cancelled should be offered the choice of reimbursement for cancelled flights, alternate travel arrangements under comparable conditions at the earliest opportunity which includes flights on other airlines, or a new flight at a later date at the passenger's convenience.

“We also expect airlines to proactively provide passengers with information about their rights when flights are cancelled.”

The only indication on the easyJet email of any other options is in the second-to-last line: “For more information on your entitlements please see our delays and cancellations page.”

A link is provided which, when clicked, leads to a page with, at the foot: “If there are no easyJet flights available to get you to your destination within 24 hours, you have the option to transfer to another airline.”

An easyJet spokesperson said: “We are operating our planned schedule up to and including Thursday 5 November and as advised in the email between then and Sunday 8 November we will continue to operate some flights to ensure all customers who need to return to the UK can do so.

“The schedule we have planned should suffice to repatriate customers who need to return to the UK.  We urge customers to return before the end of the weekend as flight options will reduce after that time.”

Under lockdown legislation, people who start holidays before 0.01am on 5 November are allowed to complete them.