easyJet on the up as group revenue soars to £1.425 billion

Luton-based airline easyJet expects full-year capacity to grow by around three per cent in the 12 months to September 30, 2020 as 75 per cent of first-half seats have already been snapped up – more than a percentage point ahead of the same time last year.

The carrier reports a strong start to full-year 2020 with continued positive momentum in a trading statement for the last quarter of 2019.

Total group revenue for the quarter ending December 31 increased by 9.9 per cent to £1.425 billion. Passenger revenue increased by 9.7 per cent to £1.124bn and ancillary revenue by 10.8 per cent to £301 million.

Passenger numbers in the quarter increased by 2.8 per cent to 22.2 million, driven by a one per cent increase in capacity to 24.3 million seats. Load factor increased by 1.6 percentage points to 91.3 per cent. Total airline revenue per seat increased by 8.8 per cent at constant currency, outperforming expectations.

Chief executive Johan Lundgren said easyJet expects to deliver a first half headline loss before tax better than H1 2019. He said: “I’m pleased that we have made a strong start to the year with continued positive momentum. 
“The improvement in our revenue per seat has been driven by our self-help revenue initiatives combined with robust customer demand and a lower capacity growth market.

“Cost per seat is in line with expectations, helped by our Operational Resilience programme which has not only improved overall customer satisfaction in the quarter but also enabled us to manage our costs. easyJet holidays launched successfully with customers looking to benefit from our unrivalled flexibility, great value and handpicked hotels.   

“Being an industry leader in sustainability is important to us, and since our announcement in November we have offset the carbon emissions from the fuel used for all our flights. This means  nine million customers have flown net-zero carbon flights with us and our offsetting programme has been received very positively by customers, staff and other stakeholders.”