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(Adds CEO comments, details, background,)
By Sarah Young
LONDON, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Budget airline easyJet plans to launch a loyalty scheme for its frequent fliers fromnext year and is in talks to provide long-haul carriers withfeeder flights.
easyJet set out its plans at an event to mark 20 years sinceits first flight. This also coincided with the airline's effortsto bring home thousands of tourists stranded in Egypt after theBritish government suspended flights there last week due tosecurity issues.
Chief executive Carolyn McCall said: "When the governmentsays that they believe Sharm (al-Sheikh) airport is safe tooperate to, we would unsuspend our operations there."
Regarding airport security after a Russian plane crashedshortly after take-off from Sharm al-Sheikh on Oct. 31, McCallsaid easyJet would follow government recommendations.
"If any airport needs to tighten their security it will begovernments that decide that that is the case," she said.
easyJet, Europe's second biggest low-cost carrier and largerrival Ryanair have grown to dominate travel in Europeover the last decade, putting pressure on carriers such asBritish Airways, Air France-KLM and Lufthansa on shorter routes.
Its plan for a loyalty scheme, which will add to pressure onthe major carriers, will reward customers who fly with it morethan 20 times a year with free flight ticket changes among otherperks.
Budget airlines have historically shunned loyalty schemesbecause of their higher costs, but easyJet said its scheme wouldbe simple and cost-efficient to run and that hundreds ofthousands of passengers would benefit.
The loyalty scheme follows easyJet's move in 2012 tointroduce allocated seating on flights, something which was also formerly only available on full-service carriers.
TRANSFER TRAFFIC
easyJet also said it hoped to strike a deal with thelong-haul carriers to provide transfer connections for theircustomers, a process known as interlining, a plan which Ryanairis also working on.
"We've been looking at it in for some time and we areobviously in discussions with other airlines about this," McCalltold a news conference, declining to comment on whetherLufthansa would be a preferred partner for easyJet.
She said easyJet would only be interested in feeding flightsfor long-haul airlines if it could find a way of doing it whichdid not complicate its low-cost business model.
"They (legacy carriers) are losing a lot of money onshort-haul Europe which is why they are very interested intalking to us and others about how they get feed. There shouldbe a way in future," she said.
She said that easyJet was not considering flying anylong-haul routes itself in the medium term as there was enoughopportunity for it to grow in short-haul travel.
easyJet, which reports results on Nov. 17, said it was toosoon to say what the cost of the Egypt situation would be.
(Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by Kate Holton and JaneMerriman)
