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easyJet is a low-cost airline that flies passengers around Europe and a few nearby places.
easyJet is a budget airline. It sells cheap seats on short flights, mostly within Europe, and it makes money two main ways: ticket sales and extras like checked bags, seat selection, and snacks. It flies to more than 30 countries and moves roughly 100 million passengers a year. Its customers are price-sensitive travelers — people going on a weekend trip, visiting family, or flying for work — who pick easyJet because the fare is low and the route is direct. It is based at London Luton Airport, which helps explain why so much of its traffic touches the UK.
Think of it as a bus company with wings. The airline keeps costs low by flying one type of plane (Airbus), stuffing more seats in, and turning planes around fast so each one flies more hours per day. Most revenue comes from passengers, but a big slice of profit comes from the "extras" — the bags, the better seats, the hotel and car-rental add-ons. That is why the airline keeps pushing bundle packages and its easyJet holidays business, which pairs flights with hotel stays and is one of its fastest-growing pieces.
easyJet started in 1995 and grew into one of Europe's biggest low-cost carriers, helped by takeovers like Go Fly and GB Airways. Like all airlines, it is a thin-margin, cyclical business: fuel prices, pilot shortages, strikes, and travel demand swings hit profits hard. It owns most of its planes, which keeps lease costs down but ties up cash. In good years it uses that cash to pay dividends and buy back shares; in weak years it protects the balance sheet. Its main rivals are Ryanair and other European carriers, and the fight is always about who can fly people for less.
Saved answer · last researched 15 Oct 2026