EasyJet

EasyJet Airline is a British airline headquartered at London Luton Airport. The parent company, EasyJet plc, is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. It's based throughout Europe but mainly in the UK, with 19 bases across Europe, the most important one being Gatwick. EasyJet is the second-largest low-cost carrier in Europe, behind Ryanair.

Main route

EasyJet flies in a point to point model rather than the more traditional airline hub and spoke model. Its international flight network consists of countries in Africa, Asia and Europe, including: Egypt, Morocco, Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Turkey, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Kosovo, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Swizerland. Domestic destinations compose of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and UK Crown Dependencies.

Fleet

Its fleet consists of the following aircrafts: 152 Airbus A319-100 (which makes Easyjet the largest operator of this type) and 31 Airbus A320-200.

History

The airline was established in 1995 as part of the EasyGroup conglomerate. It was launched by Greek-Cypriot businessman Stelios Haji-Ioannou and started inaugural flights the same year. In April 1996, the first wholly owned aircraft was delivered to Easyjet, enabling its first international route, to Amsterdam.

Until October 1997, the aircraft were operated by GB Airways, and subsequently by Air Foyle as EasyJet had not yet received its Air Operator"s Certificate. EasyJet has seen rapid expansion since its establishment in 1995, having grown through a combination of acquisitions and base openings fuelled by consumer demand for low-cost air travel.

In 1998, the company bought TEA Basel and launched Swiss operations, later renamed it as easyJet Switzerland. The airline acquired Stansted based low-cost airline Go in 2002 and GB Airways 5 years later. In 2010, it became the UK’s largest airline.