The alert came from that shrewd watcher of airline fortunes Andrew Lobbenberg of RBS: "EZJ transatlantic - ?!" he asked, somewhat incredulously.
Andrew had spotted that if you hover over Basel on easyJet's interactive route map today a blue line appears that blasts out of Switzerland, over Holland and the UK and off across the atlantic.
"Surely not true, but anyway, happy amusement for an August Wednesday," said Andrew.
The blue line shows routes for sale but not yet operating. The standard orange lines are live routes.
Intrigued I rang easyJet's press office for guidance. Was the carrier taking a leaf out of Ryanair's book and going low-cost long-haul?
Alas no. The line was meant to have gone and stopped at Dusseldorf, Germany we were told. Why it flew off across the atlantic, in what looked a nice deliberate arc, nobody really knows.
Look soon as I am not sure how quickly easyJet's web team will fix it!
And, looking a bit further I see easyJet doesn't fly to Dusseldorf today at all - perhaps they meant Dortmund, which is nearby and one of easyJet's bases. Alternatively perhaps easyJet is planning a base at Dusseldorf?
I need to call them again....
on August 12, 2009 4:25 PM | Reply
That's the BSL-DUS future route (that begins 2 November) : go on the top left of the map, click on the blue line, and you'll be redirected to http://www.easyjet.com/FR/Organiser/Informations/DUS.html
So nope, no transatlantic yet for EZY :-)
on August 12, 2009 4:34 PM | Reply
Thanks for sorting us out on this Slasher - I for one won't be holding my breath for easyJet doing the long-haul!
on August 12, 2009 5:43 PM | Reply
Slasher is 100% correct. Also, Dortmund is no longer an easyJet base. It was closed a few months ago.
on August 13, 2009 11:55 AM | Reply
No long-haul for easyJet, then, but as you say, Mark, Dusseldorf is a story in itself - they've created the destination page for it, so it's clearly not just a glitch, but the route (or routes, if there's to be more than one out of DUS) is not yet announced.
on August 13, 2009 6:47 PM | Reply
Via Paul who runs easyJet's Twitter:
easyJetCare@TheABEd sorry to dissapoint but it is our new route to DUS, problem with map. It would be nice though. ^PH
4:36 PM Aug 12th from CoTweet in reply to TheABEd
on August 20, 2009 1:33 PM | Reply
If you hover over luton also it shows another transatlantic route
on September 10, 2009 5:04 PM | Reply
Actually, on the web site, the trans-Atlantic route is showing from Luton on the map. My guess for their first big venture to the west: Iceland!(Meaning not anytime soon to go further west.)
on September 11, 2009 8:55 AM | Reply
Yes after this blog was posted and I made a call to easyJet they fixed the Basel-Dusseldorf bit, but as you say there's a blue one going west from Luton as well.
Iceland - could be. Anyone any the wiser out there?
And I agree on the not anytime soon going further west comment Mike.
Good to hear from you!
on September 15, 2009 10:16 AM | Reply
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