Security steps may hit demand - Easyjet

British airline Easyjet announced today its advance bookings had returned to normal but said it was worried tighter security …

British airline Easyjet announced today its advance bookings had returned to normal but said it was worried tighter security arrangements at British airports would eventually affect demand.

Financially our bookings are back to normal. Our concern is the airport experience is much worse than it used to be. How long will customers have to put up with it?
Easyjet Chief Executive Andy Harrison

"Financially our bookings are back to normal. Our concern is the airport experience is much worse than it used to be. How long will customers have to put up with it?," Chief Executive Andy Harrison told an industry conference in London.

"The UK government needs to make some decisions quickly."

The carrier, Europe's second-largest budget airline after Ryanair, cancelled 469 flights in August after a security alert to a suspected plot to bomb planes created chaos at UK airports.

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Easyjet said last week it expected the financial impact from the disruptions to be about £4 million but it was not changing its expectations for current year pretax profits to increase 40 to 50 percent.

Mr Harrison said the airline's forward bookings were "fine" but that Easyjet was lobbying the UK government for a "sensible solution" to tighter hand-luggage restrictions and other airport security measures following a suspected plot to bomb airliners.

He declined to comment on the outlook for the winter period but said recent predictions made by Ryanair were pessimistic.