Elbow room

16 April 2020 By Ed Cropley Follow @edwardcropley

The budget carrier hopes face masks and empty middle seats will speed up a return to the skies. Such measures will reduce profit as well as infection risks but lower taxes and fuel prices could help. The bigger question is how soon punters will feel safe enough to travel again.

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British airline easyJet said on April 16 it could survive grounding its fleet for at least nine months due to the coronavirus, thanks to cost savings and other measures taken to shore up its finances.

The budget carrier said various funding initiatives gave it additional liquidity of 1.95 billion pounds, and a total cash balance of 3.3 billion pounds.

Chief Executive Johan Lundgren said that when flying restarts, he expected middle seats to remain empty to reduce the risk of virus transmission.

EasyJet shares were up 6.9% at 644.8 pence by 0802 GMT on April 16. Year-to-date, they have fallen 54%.

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