UK airlines bringing passengers home for Christmas
British Airways is preparing for Christmas 2015 with more than 450 of its pilots expecting to fly 35,000 customers across the world on December 25th.
At the same time, easyJet has predicted this Friday to be the busiest Christmas getaway day in the airline’s history – with more than 204,000 passengers set to fly on over 1,300 flights across the network.
A record 2.5 million passengers will fly with the airline between December 17th and January 4th, with customers travelling early to avoid the last minute Christmas Eve rush.
There will be over 3,400 British Airways cabin crew on duty on Christmas Day, with those working on flights serving 15,000 Brussel sprouts - enough to fill a transit van – half-a-tonne of turkey and 150kg of stuffing.
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For dessert, the crew will be dishing out 25,000 mince pies, which if laid out would be the length of 21 A380 superjumbo aircraft, and nearly 600 Christmas puddings.
Over the course of the festive period (December 24th to December 31st) the airline will have more than 10,000 cabin crew keeping the festive spirit going.
They will be working hard to make the in-flight experience special for customers while keeping their own traditions alive.
Sacha Robertson, cabin crew, said: “This year I’m working on Christmas Eve and taking my mum with me to Barbados.
“We always make a fuss on board, wearing things like reindeer antlers and tinsel.
“And then when we get home, mum and I will have Christmas Day all over again with the rest of the family so we get to do the whole thing twice.”
In the UK alone, 115,000 passengers are set to fly to or from easyJet’s UK airports on Friday toppling the record for the most passengers travelling with the airline on one day during Christmas.
From Friday until Christmas Eve, 135,000 passengers will travel domestically across UK as they travel home to spend Christmas with their families.
Sophie Dekkers, director UK Market, easyJet said: “We are seeing high demand across our entire network of more than 750 routes on Friday
December 18th as more people than ever before are flying either home or on holiday with us this Christmas in what will be our busiest Christmas ever.