Over the last 20 years, easyJet’s image has evolved. For their 20th birthday, this week, the British low-cost airline organized a special birthday event at London Luton Airport, where the company’s head office is located. It was also here that easyJet’s first flight took-off for Glasgow, on 10 November, 1995.
In two decades, the low-cost has grown from two planes with 70 employees, to 243 aircraft and over 10,000 employees. Their first year’s 40,000 passengers, have increased to 68 million in 2015. A success that David Cameron, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, wished to highlight via a giant computer screen.
For this 20th anniversary, easyJet unveiled a plane with a special livery to the 700 guests present, featuring a mosaic of over 100,000 selfies of passengers. The company also presented some of their employees new uniforms incorporating wearable LED technology that will be worn in 2016.
For Carolyn McCall, easyJet's CEO, increasing their market share in Europe is THE priority of the company for the next 20 years: "So, it is about doing what we do, but doing even better, doing more of it. We are growing at 7 to 8% a year and we intend to continue to do that. We know we can expand in every single market we are in, there is a lot of opportunity, because actually low-cost penetration is still very low."
However, easyJet will be up against stiff competition from Ryanair, the largest European low-cost, who last year transported 90 million passengers.
