easyJet set for £230m year-end profit
EasyJet is forecasting a year-end pre-tax profit of up to £230 million.
Releasing its interim statement for the three months to June 30, chief executive Carolyn McCall said it expects to deliver a pre-tax profit of between £200 million and £230 million assuming normal conditions apply.
“Against the backdrop of high fuel prices and an uncertain economic environment, the strength of easyJet’s trading demonstrates it is well placed to succeed,†she said.
In the last quarter, total revenue grew by 23.2% to £935 million, while number of seats flown rose by 17.1% to 16.7 million.
The airline said load factors improved by 0.2 percentage points to 86.3%.
There was a 17.3% growth in passengers (8.8% growth excluding the impact of the 2010 volcano).
EasyJet also managed to grow business traffic by 20% following the launch of a flexible fare initiaitive.
However, the airline warned that air traffic control strikes or other “external factors†could hit fourth quarter performance.
“EasyJet has built a number of firebreaks into its summer flying programme in order to help mitigate this impact,” it said.
“Encouragingly, there was minimal disruption to our operations from the partial shutdown of airspace in May 2011 due to the volcanic ash cloud as a result of operational resilience for such events.
It said the current economic conditions have led to pockets of industrial relations issues in France and Germany.
In the UK, it said it has now reached a satisfactory pay deal for 2011 with its UK pilots in the quarter and has now started “constructive dialogue†with BALPA to secure improved “flexibility and competitiveness in return for addressing pilot concerns around the current rostering arrangements”.
by Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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