easyJet removed seats so the crew-ratio rule would let it fly with three cabin crew

In summer 2022 easyJet was battling the industry-wide post-pandemic staff shortage: Covid surges kept crew off work, security clearance for new recruits lagged, and the airline had to cut hundreds of flights while trying to return to pre-pandemic service levels.

Its fix targeted the letter of the rule. UK Civil Aviation Authority requirements tie the number of cabin crew to the number of physical seats, not to passengers on board. By taking out the back row of seating on its A319 fleet, easyJet could legally fly each aircraft with three cabin crew instead of four, capping the plane at 150 passengers.

The capacity sacrifice was close to free: easyJet noted the last six seats are typically booked in the final days before departure, so selling a maximum of 150 tickets would barely affect summer travel plans — while the schedule gained certainty from needing one fewer crew member per flight.

The CAA rule counts seats rather than passengers, so seat count was the one lever easyJet could pull with money instead of hiring.

Recruiting and security-clearing new crew was expected to take up to 12 months, too slow for the summer season.

The final six seats on an A319 sell at the margin anyway, so the 150-passenger cap cost almost no real demand.

When a constraint is written against the wrong variable — seats instead of passengers — the cheapest fix is to change what you own, not how you staff.

easyJet said the scheme would let it operate with more certainty and expected to be "near" 2019 levels of flying that summer; it called the capacity change very small as a proportion of overall summer passengers. The travel industry was less charmed — Julia Lo Bue-Said of the Advantage Travel Partnership called it a "travesty" that easyJet was stripping out seats to meet crew ratios, arguing it exacerbated the struggle to meet demand.