Andy Harrison, easyJet’s Chief Executive, has officially opened easyJet’s 17th
base at Madrid’s Barajas airport.

The airline expects to carry over two million passengers from Madrid in 2007 on 18
routes - three domestic, thirteen European and two to North Africa.

Four brand new Airbus A319 aircraft will be permanently based at Madrid Airport, the
largest airport on the Iberian Peninsula, from February. The initial investment of
170 million Euros will create 150 jobs for pilots and cabin crew at easyJet.

 

Spain is one of easyJet’s fastest growing markets. Last year easyJet launched 13
new routes to and from Spain and the airline has already announced a further 13
routes to and from Spain to be opened this year. Currently easyJet offers 79 routes
from 12 Spanish airports and Spain now accounts for 29% of the total easyJet route
network.

 

Due to the additional traffic, easyJet’s ground handling partner Swissport-Menzies
hired an additional fifty full-time employees, while maintenance provider SR
Technics has opened a new Line Maintenance Station at Madrid Airport which initially
employs ten people. In addition to new jobs at the airport, easyJet’s two million
passengers will help create 2000 jobs in the Madrid area in business and tourism.
easyJet’s order of 315 brand-new Airbus aircraft (including options) also
safeguards the 2000 jobs at Airbus Spain.

 

At a press conference in Madrid today, Andy Harrison, Chief Executive of easyJet,
said:

 

“easyJet offers its passengers very low fares - with care and convenience; a
combination that no other airline can match. We believe Spanish air passengers have
had to put up with high fares and poor service for too long. We aim to change this.

 

“This year we will carry over nine million passengers from and to Spain, two
million of which will fly through our base in Madrid.

 

“easyJet brings four million tourists to Spain every year - more than any other
low fares airline. These four million tourists spend € 3.3 billion in Spain.

 

“Millions of customers have recognised the unique benefits of flying with easyJet,
so it’s no wonder that we carry about 20% more passengers than Spain’s national
airline Iberia.”

 

 

In 2006, 8.4 million passengers flew with easyJet on routes to and from Spain - a
15% increase compared to 2005, when the airline carried 7.3 million passengers in
Spain. This year, easyJet expects to carry over nine million passengers, which would
constitute a further growth of around 15%.

 

Last year easyJet carried about 33.5 million passengers, compared to 28 million on
Iberia - making easyJet 20% bigger than Spain’s national airline.

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