easyJet passengers up 9.1%
22.01.10
easyJet passengers were up by 9.1% in the final 3 months of 2009, thanks to growth at a number of its European and UK airports. In total it had 11m passengers during the last quarter of 2009 but the airline, which revealed that it is on course for a ‘substantial’ improvement in profits this year, said markets outside the UK were experiencing the strongest growth, including at Milan Malpensa, Madrid Barajas and Paris Orly.
easyJet grew capacity by 14% in mainland Europe during the quarter (the first of its financial year), but this included 33% growth at Milan and 20% at Paris and Madrid. In the UK, capacity grew by 60% at Manchester and 11% at Gatwick, but these were offset by poor results from its home base at Luton Airport and at East Midlands Airport. easyJet is cutting flights at the former and pulling out of the latter completely.
The budget airline managed to operate 90% of its flights in December, despite the bad weather that closed many airports. The 'worst weather-related disruption in its 15-year history' cost easyJet £8m and it expected to have a similar impact in its next quarter given the bad weather earlier this month.
The number of its passengers from outside the UK increased by 20% in the quarter to 54%, whist its load factor grew by 2.4 percentage points to 85.8%. Revenue per seat grew by 4.2% to £47.50 in the final quarter of 2009, but fell by 0.4% in constant currency terms.
easyJet posted total revenue £607.5m, up by 10.5%. However, this was driven by a growth in auxiliary income, which offset a continuing decline in yields. Earnings from hotels, airport parking, in flight sales, baggage check-in fees and speedy boarding passes rose 14% to £9.90 a seat and accounted for nearly 20% of revenue.
The airline has been adding aircraft and owned or leased 185 at the end of the quarter, up 10% on last year. It said that lower fuel prices should give it a £100m savings boost this year, and it expects to post a loss of £80m-95m in the seasonally quieter first half, a ‘significant improvement’ on the same period a year earlier.
Andy Harrison, easyJet's chief executive, said he saw no improvement in the budget travel market. He said: ‘We are doing well because we are winning market share. But there is no sign I can see of a wider macroeconomic recovery in short-haul aviation.'
'Economic conditions remain challenging and we continue to expect a tough trading environment. However, the underlying performance of the business in the first quarter [of its financial year - the last quarter of 2009] has been encouraging and we remain on track to deliver a substantial profit improvement during 2010.’
Mr Harrison, who is due to leave the airline in June, also revealed that easyJet is close to appointing a new finance director.
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