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BRITAIN’S biggest budget airline is celebrating three decades of low-cost travel and irreplaceable memories. EasyJet, the British multinational airline headquartered in London, is celebrating the anniversary of its very first flight, which took place on November 10, 1995 and started a thirty-year legacy of affordable travels across Europe. Humble beginnings and a jaw-dropping price tag EasyJet was founded in March of 1995 by Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, inspired by the low-cost model of American airlines. The airline was established by Stelios (the first company in what would become the EasyGroup conglomerate), and launched with just 70 total employees. Its first flight, which was EZY 121 and took place on a Boeing 737-200, took off from Luton to Glasgow. Its earliest marketing slogan was “making flying as affordable as a pair of jeans” … and that it was; each of its 122 passengers paid £29, or just under €33, for the flight, and the onboard refreshments included a cup of tea, at £1, and a shortbread at 50p. The £29 price tag was made clear to be the lowest available price for a flight at the time, but even the higher-cost tickets at £59, or just over €67, were still strikingly low compared to competitors. EasyJet was instantly popular. Adding routes over the next few years, the low-cost carrier enabled excited, holidaymaking Brits to plan trips to different destinations, from pub crawls in Barcelona to island retreats in Ibiza, with unbeatable pricing – a fraction of what it might have cost with another airline. EasyJet: revolutionising travel for Brits from the very beginning The airline set out to revolutionise aviation in the UK, and that it did. Just within its first year, EasyJet reportedly carried approximately 40,000 passengers on unforgettable holidays. The next year, in April of 1996, EasyJet acquired its first wholly owned aircraft, making the company’s first international route possible. The flight journeyed to Amsterdam, putting EasyJet in direct competition with rival airlines British Airways and Dutch flag carrier KLM. Four years later, in November of 2000, EasyJet was officially floated on the London Stock Exchange. In fact, EasyJet’s popularity led it to becoming the largest airline in the UK in the year 2010, flying an incredible 500 routes. Breaking barriers within its first decade In 2012, EasyJet became the world’s largest A319 operator and Europe’s largest A320 family operator. In March of 2013, EasyJet launched its 100th route from London Gatwick Airport and was offering flights directly from London to Moscow. By 2015, the company was offering routes to more than 130 destinations in 31 different countries; it operated 26 bases centred around Europe, and had a total of a whopping 10,000 employees. The year 2016 saw the company break even more barriers and make history. Firstly, EasyJet opened a Venice base, marking the first base for business travel in northeastern Italy. Additionally, EasyJet launched the World’s largest self-service bag drop at Gatwick. Today, EasyJet is estimated to be worth £3.58 billion, or more than €4 billion. Overcoming the pandemic and a grounded fleet But this journey was not without hardship. Like many airlines across the world, EasyJet was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, and was forced to ground all its flights in March of 2020. In April of 2020, EasyJet received a £600 million (€682 million) loan from the UK Government, and in June of 2020, EasyJet announced it would resume flights, flying half of its routes in July 2020 and up to 75 per cent in August 2020, with reduced frequency. May of 2020 also came with the revelation that the company had been victim to a cyber attack, which leaked the personal information of 9 million clients. However, with a strong and ambitious goal to become Europe’s most beloved airline, EasyJet restored its flight schedule by 2021 and crafted various plans to recover from the pandemic, release more fare bundles, and, perhaps most impressively, achieve net zero by the year 2050. EasyJet, expanding endlessly Last year, in 2024, the company expanded its network to 30 bases by opening two new bases in Alicante and Birmingham, and has been continuing to expand and add more routes in Europe and in particular between Spain and the UK, further connecting the two desirable destinations and encouraging Britons’ love affair with the Mediterranean country. At the tail end of this September 2025, EasyJet won the Airline of the Year award at World Routes, with recognition of its low fares, sustainable network, and collaborative partnerships with airports and destinations. Just ahead of its 30th birthday, the airline celebrates having revolutionised low-cost European travel for all passengers – but especially Brits – and looks forward to many more years of accessible holidays and open doors for those eager to get to know the world. Read more Travel News here. Read more news from the UK here.
