Last checked at 
By Sergio Goncalves
LISBON, Oct 8 (Reuters) - British airline easyJet
said on Thursday it would open a new base in Faro, the main city
in Portugal's popular Algarve tourist region, which has been
hammered by the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Joao Lopes, easyJet's executive director in Portugal, told
reporters the airline would allocate three aircraft to Faro next
year, making it the company's third base in the southern
European nation. It already has bases in Lisbon and Porto.
EasyJet hopes to operate 17 international routes to and from
Faro between March and October 2021.
Lopes said easyJet wanted to "be able to react as soon as
the recovery starts (...) and reinforce tourism in Algarve", a
region well known among British tourists for its beaches and
golf courses.
Last year, Portugal received about two million Britons, with
64% of them going to the sunny Algarve. So far in 2020, only
about 100,000 Britons have arrived in the region.
EasyJet has been badly hit by the pandemic, warning on
Thursday its first ever annual loss could be as much as 845
million pounds ($1.1 billion) as it was flying just 25% of
planned capacity.
Lopes said the new base in Faro would create around 100
local jobs.
"We want to avoid 2021 being a year of losses, as 2020 was,
and it may be the first year of recovery," Lopes said.
Economy Minister Pedro Siza Vieira said easyJet's investment
in Faro was important, especially "at a time air transport is
going through the greatest crisis in history".
($1 = 0.7741 pounds)
(Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; Editing by Catarina Demony and
Mark Potter)
