SCOTLAND’S biggest airline is to slash up to 4500 jobs as it becomes the latest carrier to meet plummeting demand with redundancies.

Earlier this month EasyJet – which flies more people from Scotland than any of its competitors – announced it would expand services here and fill the gaps left by the demise of Flybe.

It collapsed in March, with the reduction in travel caused by the pandemic blamed.

Now EasyJet has said it may make up to 30% of its workforce redundant as it cuts the size of its fleet in response to flatlining demand for air travel.

British Airways, Ryanair and Virgin have already made similar announcements, triggering condemnation from unions and calls from MPs for the UK Government to act.

Johan Lundgren, chief executive of EasyJet, said the job news was “a horrible thing”. He went on: “EasyJet is built on absolutely fantastic people and clearly this is going to have an impact on some of those. But we do it to make sure that EasyJet not only survives through this period, but also comes out of this as a strong and competitive company.

“There is a huge amount of uncertainty, going forward.”

The move comes ahead of the publication of the company’s half-year results on June 30 and its planned resumption of flights on June 15.

The carrier does not expect demand to return to the levels seen last year until 2023. Instead, it is planning for a capacity level for the period until September of just 30% of that seen in 2019.

As a result, its fleet size will be cut by around 50 aircraft to around 300.

However, it said winter bookings are currently “well ahead of the equivalent point last year” partly through rebookings of journeys which could not be made during the crisis.

The Balpa pilots union said staff will be “shocked” by the move. Its general secretary Brian Strutton commented: “Given EasyJet is a British company, the UK is its strongest market and it has had hundreds of millions in support from the UK taxpayer, I can safely say that we will need a lot of convincing that EasyJet needs to make such dramatic cuts.”

And Unite national officer Oliver Richardson said: “The statement from easyJet follows the announcements of proposed job losses by other airlines and again demonstrates why it is imperative that the government urgently brings forward a bespoke plan to provide assistance to the UK’s aviation sector.

“The UK is an island nation and aviation is strategically crucial for the long-term economic success of the country. Aviation needs urgent financial support to overcome the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and it cannot simply be left to the market to sort out.

“It is the sector which has been most affected with flights being effectively halted, and without government support the sector will take decades to recover, seriously damaging the local and regional economies which rely on aviation for their financial success.”

Meanwhile, EasyJet says onboard meals will not be offered and all staff and passengers will have to wear masks as part of coronavirus control measures when flights resume.