easyJet celebrates flying five million passengers to and from Birmingham Airport ahead of new base opening

  • easyJet is today celebrating  flying over five million passengers to and from Birmingham with a flight giveaway for a pair of lucky travellers

  • The milestone comes ahead of the airline opening its new UK base at Birmingham Airport next month with 16 new routes taking off 

  • The airline started operations at Birmingham airport 17 years ago, flying its first customers from Birmingham to Geneva in 2007

The UK’s largest airline easyJet is this week celebrating carrying over five million passengers to and from Birmingham airport.

To mark the occasion, easyJet surprised two lucky travellers at Birmingham airport Rachel and Thomas Caulton from Cheltenham who were flying to Geneva, with a pair of return flights to anywhere on easyJet’s network.

The airline launched operations at Birmingham airport in 2007, flying its first customers from Birmingham also to Geneva. 17 years later, the launch of a new three-aircraft base is enabling the airline to further expand its Birmingham network with 16 new routes taking off with the base opening on 18 March 2024 including to Antalya, Barcelona and Sharm el Sheikh meaning easyJet will connect customers in the Midlands via 29 routes across the UK, Europe and North Africa.

The airline’s first base opening in the UK in over a decade will create around 100 direct jobs for pilots and crew and over 1,200 more indirect jobs. easyJet is the largest airline in the UK and currently employs around ten thousand people across England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The new base opening will also see easyJet holidays, the UK’s fastest growing tour operator, offer thousands more package holidays and city breaks from Birmingham to over 100 European destinations with a choice of up to 5,000 hotels. 

All easyJet holidays include flights, hotel, 23kg luggage per person, and transfers on beach holidays secured with a deposit of just £60 per person. All breaks are covered by Ultimate Flexibility, which includes a Best Price Guarantee meaning if customers find holidays cheaper elsewhere, a discount of the price difference will be applied to their booking.

Ali Gayward, easyJet's UK Country Manager, said:

“We are delighted to celebrate carrying over five million passengers from Birmingham as we prepare to open our new base next month and start flying customers to even more destinations in the UK, Europe and North Africa.  We remain focused on offering great value fares, convenient connections and more choice for our customers in the Midlands, and we can’t wait to welcome them onboard.”

Tom Screen, Aviation Director of Birmingham Airport said:

"With just 25 days to go until easyJet launch based operations at Birmingham Airport, it was a pleasure to present the five millionth easyJet passenger with their prize. Reaching this milestone is a testament to the ever-strengthening relationship between Birmingham Airport and easyJet."

For further information, please contact the easyJet Press Office on 01582 525252 or log onto mediacentre.easyJet.com

About easyJet

easyJet is Europe’s leading airline offering a unique and winning combination of the best route network connecting Europe's primary airports with great value fares and friendly service.

easyJet flies on more of Europe’s most popular routes than any other airline and carried more than 82 million passengers in 2023 with more than 11.3 million travelling for business. The airline has over 300 aircraft flying on nearly 1000 routes to more than 155 airports across 35 countries. Over 300 million Europeans live within one hour's drive of an easyJet airport.

easyJet aims to be a good corporate citizen, employing people on local contracts in eight countries across Europe in full compliance with national laws and recognising their trade unions. The airline supports several local charities and has a corporate partnership with UNICEF which has raised nearly £17m for the most vulnerable children since it was established in 2012.

In 2022, easyJet published its roadmap to net zero by 2050. The roadmap, which also features a combination of fleet renewal, operational efficiencies, airspace modernisation, Sustainable Aviation Fuel and carbon removal technology, has set an ambitious interim carbon emissions intensity reduction target of 35% by 2035, validated by the Science-based targets initiative (SBTi). The airline’s ultimate aim is to fully transition its fleet to zero carbon emission technology, which it will achieve through a number of strategic partnerships including with Airbus, Rolls-Royce and GKN Aerospace Solutions. Since 2000, the airline has successfully reduced its carbon emissions per passenger, per kilometre by one-third.  

Innovation is in easyJet’s DNA – since launching nearly 30 years ago, easyJet changed the way people fly to the present day where the airline leads the industry in digital and operational innovations to make travel more easy and affordable for its passengers.

In 2023 easyJet was named by TIME as one of the World’s Best Companies and a Leader in Diversity 2024 by The Financial Times.