EasyJet slumps to £1.3bn loss as Covid forces it to cut flights

Airline to run 20% of flights for rest of 2020 but says vaccine news has boosted bookings

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EasyJet has slumped to a 1.3bn full-year loss, the first in its 25-year history, but said bookings had been boosted by positive news on Covid-19 vaccines.

Johan Lundgren, the chief executive, said bookings had surged by 50% last week after the US drugmaker Pfizer and the German biotech firm BioNTech announced that their coronavirus vaccine was more than 90% effective. Momentum has continued this week, as people have more confidence making travel plans going forward," he said.