EasyJet boosted by lower fuel costs and strong package holiday demand
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EasyJet slashed its first-quarter losses after the airline enjoyed falling fuel costs and flew more people during the Christmas season. The FTSE 100 company reported its headline pre-tax losses slumped by 52 per cent to £61million in the three months ending December.
A total of 21.2 million passengers travelled with the low-cost airline, 1.4 million more customers than in the same period last year, which helped grow its revenue by 13 per cent to above £2billion. Turnover was also boosted by higher demand at the group's package holidays arm, whose profits climbed by £12million to £43million as a result.
While Easyjet still made an overall loss - typical for the winter months when demand is lower - its fuel costs dipped by 3 per cent to £500million despite the firm operating nearly 5,000 extra flights. Meanwhile, its load factor - the percentage of seats filled by passengers - rose by 1.9 percentage points to 88.2 per cent.
Growth: A total of 21.2 million passengers travelled with EasyJet in the first quarter, 1.4 million more customers than in the same period last year. It now anticipates lower first-half underlying winter losses, with forward bookings for the second quarter up two percentage points on the prior year at 57 per cent.
Kenton Jarvis, chief executive of EasyJet, also noted that the company already has one million extra customers booked for this summer, with Palma, Faro and Alicante among the most popular destinations. 'All of this demonstrates positive progress towards our medium-term target to deliver more than one billion pounds of profit before tax,' he added.
