Drone disruption at Gatwick hits easyJet operations and costs

22 January 2019 - 10:24
By Reuters
An Easyjet plane lands at Gatwick Airport in southern England in this file photo.
Image: AFP PHOTO/CARL COURT An Easyjet plane lands at Gatwick Airport in southern England in this file photo.

British budget airline easyJet said on Tuesday that drone disruption at London's Gatwick airport in December had cost it millions of pounds in lost operating revenue and additional costs.

The airline had a 5 million pound ($6.44 million) revenue impact and 10 million pound extra cost after a mystery saboteur wrought 36 hours of travel chaos at London's second biggest airport, affecting 82,000 easyJet customers and cancelling over 400 of its flights.

Stripping out the affect of the drone disruption, easyJet's cost performance was in-line with expectations ($1 = 0.7769 pounds)