Mr Lundgren said post-Brexit restrictions had forced easyJet to reject 8,000 European Union job applications for the airline, despite claims by Aviation Minister Robert Corts last week that he was not guilty of leaving the block.
The easyJet chief insisted he was “not blaming” Brexit and acknowledged that his company had failed to prepare for the impact of the UK’s exit from the European bloc.
However, he said Brexit had a negative impact on the airline’s set of potential candidates.
Flight layoffs were announced this summer as easyJet revealed it had canceled more than 4,000 flights in the three months to the end of June.
Action had to be taken to avoid a repeat of the chaotic scenes that first appeared when the British took off during the Easter holidays.
Mr Lundgren said: “Along with airport restrictions, we are taking precautionary measures to increase resilience over the summer, including a number of additional flight consolidations at affected airports, notifying customers in advance and expecting the vast majority to be re-booked for alternative flights. within 24 hours. “
The airline said it had taken action following unprecedented restrictions from airports such as Gatwick and Amsterdam. The carrier also blamed the delay in the government-controlled identity check scheme, which has created a huge backlog in the release of new employees to start work.
Mr Lundgren said: “Providing safe and reliable work for our customers in this challenging environment is easyJet’s top priority and we regret that for some customers we have not been able to provide the service they expected from us.
“We believe that this is the right action we need to take to be able to deliver to all our customers during the peak summer period in this challenging environment.
“Combined with airport restrictions, we are taking precautionary measures to increase resilience over the summer, including a number of additional flight consolidations at affected airports, notifying customers in advance and expecting the vast majority to be recharged on alternative flights within 24 hours.”
With an average 175-seat easyJet aircraft, and assuming each is full of 85, about 1.5 million passenger flights are likely to be affected.
Shares of EasyJet were hit harder by its competitors during the pandemic.
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