Easyjet blasts Gatwick drone chaos after a £15m hit

The low cost carrier said it racked up £10m in passenger compensation costs and £5m in lost revenues after more than 400 of its flights were cancelled when the drone sightings brought Gatwick to a standstill just before Christmas.

EasyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said he was “disappointed” the airport took so long to resolve the situation and reopen the runways.

But he said it was a “criminal act and illegal activity”.

“You can’t always protect yourself from that, but it’s a wake-up call and airports will be better prepared going forward,” he added.

The drone scare saw flights at Gatwick suspended on December 19 at the height of the pre-Christmas travel rush, with the airport not full reopened until December 21.

The three days of chaos saw more than 1,000 flights grounded and some 140,000 passengers affected.

Mr Lundgren said easyJet “did everything we could to help our customers affected by the incident”.

“I am proud of the way our teams worked around the clock to mitigate the impact of the incident and looked after affected customers,” he said.

In its first-quarter update, easyJet said its capacity rose 18.2% to 24.1 million, which was lower than expected, due in part to the drone disruption.

Total revenues in the three months to December 31 lifted 13.7% to £1.3 billion, while passenger revenues rose 12.2% to £1.03bn. Passenger numbers in the quarter increased by 15.1% to 21.6 million.

Shares in the FTSE 100-listed group rose 7% after the update.