Easyjet flight EZY2335 took off from further down London Luton Airport’s runway than its crew had planned on 13 June 2025, and the Airbus A320-214 was only 65ft above the ground when it cleared the runway. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch said the mistake left 180 passengers and six crew members on board a flight that later landed at Málaga Costa del Sol Airport and returned to Luton the same day.
The report lands now because the AAIB has set out how the error happened. It said the aircraft’s weight meant it should have used the full length of the runway, not the shorter departure point the co-pilot first planned to use. The crew agreed to calculate performance using the full runway, which permitted take-off, after deciding they did not have the performance needed from Intersection Alpha because of the aircraft’s higher-than-normal weight and the environmental conditions at the time.
That should have settled the matter, but it did not. The AAIB said the aircraft departed from further down the runway than the crew had planned, even after the crew had calculated it needed the full length. Three preceding aircraft had left from Intersection Alpha, and the report said an opportunity was missed to alert air traffic control to the need for the lesser-used full-length departure position. The plane then took off without incident, despite its power settings not being adjusted.
The branch said the missed cue was probably caused by a mix of habitual behaviour and confirmation bias, and it pointed to a similar Luton incident on 22 April 2025, when another aircraft cleared the runway by just 13ft after taking off from the wrong place. In this case, the captain realised the mistake only after the flight returned to Luton later on 13 June 2025. Easyjet said it has reviewed its take-off operating procedures and said it had assisted the AAIB with the investigation.
What the report does not say is whether the runway error will lead to any disciplinary or regulatory action. For now, the most important fact is that the airline has had two close calls at the same airport in less than two months, and the second one ended with a jet climbing away just 65ft above the ground.
