• Airline's new Amman service will be its longest yet scheduled
• Chief executive says 'brutal' decisions needed about which routes work
The head of the low-cost airline easyJet has warned of an industry "shake-out" with routes likely to be axed and fares set to rise, as oil remains well above $100 per barrel and carriers grapple with high fuel prices.
Speaking as easyJet launched its longest-ever scheduled route, a five-hour journey from London to the Jordanian capital of Amman, chief executive Carolyn McCall said it was inevitable that airlines, including her own, would examine route networks as profit margins narrow.
"You will see us being much more brutal about what routes work and what routes don't," she said, citing a recent decision by easyJet to pull out of Helsinki. "We're going to be very, very tough about routes that aren't working."
Nevertheless, McCall said easyJet intends to defend and grow its position in three key strongholds – London, Geneva and Paris. And she revealed that the airline is plotting a full-scale assault on the corporate travel market by rolling out business-friendly flexible tickets and recruiting its first corporate sales team, selling tickets to multinational companies.
About 18% of easyJet's 50 million monthly passengers are business travellers and McCall has earmarked the corporate market as a priority for growth, despite signs that the high price of oil could lead to cutbacks in routes.
Following a five-month trial selling flexible fares through a corporate booking agent, easyJet intends to offer premium tickets on its website that allow business travellers to switch between flights within a four-week window, check in luggage for free and board aircraft early.
"Nearly one in five of our passengers are business travellers and we've done that without doing anything to attract them – they've found us," said McCall.
The airline's corporate sales team will number 15 people, based in the UK, France and Switzerland, with a mandate to negotiate with the travel departments of both FTSE 100 and smaller corporates. But McCall is reluctant to tweak the airline's no-frills service to cater for businesspeople. She said allocated seating was "not a first level priority" and ruled out introducing business-class seats: "We don't believe in that. It's complicated and it's not egalitarian. We're a very egalitarian airline."
McCall, a former boss of Guardian Media Group, has had a rocky first year at easyJet, punctuated by clashes with founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou over strategy, pay awards and dividend policy. The airline suffered a share price plunge in January when a widening first-half loss disappointed investors.
EasyJet's new thrice-weekly service from Gatwick to Amman is at the outer edge of its target range. The British airline's inaugural flight was greeted in Jordan by a red carpet reception and by water cannons fired by airport fire engines.
Jordan is keen to market itself as a "safe and secure" destination in the Middle East, despite recent unrest culminating in a demonstration on Friday in which a pro-reform protester was killed in Amman and more than 100 were injured.
Launching the route to Amman is a risk for easyJet – its rival airline BMI had to hastily halt a brand-new service to Tripoli when Libya erupted in flames. McCall said that easyJet was monitoring the situation and would not fly anywhere it did not consider safe: "People in many countries are demonstrating about things – look at Trafalgar Square."