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swering questions at the event, hosted by Facebook. Lee Hayhurst reports


Lundgren objects to ‘unfair’ critique of green policies


Johan Lundgren hit out at critics of the aviation sector who lump all airlines together for their record on environmental sustainability.


EasyJet’s chief executive said


the airline was “intensifying” its investment in cleaner ways of working “for the primary reason that this is the right thing to do”. And he added that other competitor, often legacy, airlines who are continuing to operate inefficient fleets and lo load factors should be penalised by the authorities. “It irritates me when you hear statements that take aviation as one,” he said. “We are investing in technology deliberately to reduce our carbon emissions and reduce our fuel bill. That isn’t something we do without thinking about it. “Not everyone is the same.


There are competitors of ours that continue to fly  to yearold aircraft and have load factors in


“To be accused of being a part of an industry that does not take responsibility is wrong”


the seventy percents, and we are treated the same way.” Lundgren said easyJet was


lobbying for an approach to airport fees and landing charges tat reflected an airlines commitment to – and record on – operating sustainably. “It’s only fair that there should


be fares and penalties for those who do not,” he said. “Rules are there to incentivise good behaviour, and this is right, but there should be an equivalent penalty for bad behaviour. “These things do not happen


randomly – they cost a lot of oney t sould e reflected


EMISSIONS: EasyJet is investing in technology to reduce its fuel bill


in what we are paying back to governments.” Lundgren added: “We need


to go out there and make our voice heard on these things, and participate in the discussion. “To be accused of being a part of an industry that does not take responsibility is wrong. We are one of te ost efficient airlines in Europe, if not the world.” Lundgren said easyJet had


a target of reducing carbon eissions y  fro its  levels, and is lobbying for a European single skies agreement so that airlines can oerate ore efficient routes


More consolidation expected for Europe


Further consolidation in the European aviation sector is expected, but the region won’t end up with a small number of mega carriers like there is in the US, according to Lundgren. He told te usiness reafast tat in 


tere ere  carriers coandin aout  of te aret, ut y  tis nuer ad fallen to ust  “Consolidation has been taking place for a long time – it is not new. The trend is for fewer and larger players, and if you are going to be small you need to be niche and regional.”


Lundgren said consolidation would have happened


more rapidly had fuel prices remained high, and that desite  ein a relatiely ood year for te sector, there were still some airline casualties. “That tells you something about the long tail in this industry,” he said. “Some airlines are struggling.” He said tat caacity constraints ade it difficult


to grow because airlines cannot control it, and that support for national carriers from governments would ensure that more survive – although he described as “bizarre” the idea that any country should have a national airline.


LUNDGREN: Believes that easyJet has ‘changed people’s lives’


20 December 2018travelweekly.co.uk63


Chief executive has joined his favourite airline


Johan Lundgren told the Travel Weekly Business Breakfast that before the chief executive’s job became available, easyJet was the business he singled out as the one that would tempt him back to corporate life. He said that headhunters had been in touch following his departure from Tui, but he did not think he would be “putting on a suit again” after 20 years in senior roles at the operator. He recalled that he was


asked which company he would choose, if he were to come back. “I said easyJet because it’s my favourite airline. I also think it has changed people’s lives.” Six months later, when Dame


Carolyn McCall resigned to join ITV, he was contacted about the job. Lundgren said easyJet is a


very different business to Tui in that it is a lot simpler, “but the scale is quite amazing”. The airline operates 300-


lu aircrat flig  flight a day, and when it launched its latest programme it was selling out one aircraft every six seconds.


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