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LONDON (Alliance News) - Low-cost airlines easyJet PLC and Flybe Group PLC Friday said they flew more passengers and filled more of the seats in their planes in recent weeks, but Irish flag carrier Aer Lingus Group PLC reported the opposite.
EasyJet said it flew 5.1 million passengers in March, up from nearly 4.9 million in March 2013, while load factor, a measure of how many seats on its planes are filled, rose to 91.5%, from 90.5%.
For the 12 months to the end of March, easyJet flew 61.8 million passengers, up from 59.7 million, and its load factor rose to 89.5%, from 89.4%.
Flybe Group gave a bigger trading update. It said passenger volumes were up 6% on the year to 1.6 million in the three months to the end of March, the fourth quarter of its financial year. Its load factor rose six percentage points to 70% as capacity was also reduced by 4% to 2.2 million seats.
"This largely reflects the continued success of Flybe's competitive pricing strategy to offer more attractive lead-in fares, with higher passenger volumes more than offsetting lower yields, leading to a 4% increase in passenger revenue per seat to GBP49.80," the airline said.
Flybe is going through a major restructuring programme as it tries to improve profitability and make itself competitive in a very intense UK aviation market. Last November, Flybe reported that it swung to a profit in the first half of its current financial year thanks to a jump in revenues and as its cost cutting and restructuring programme started to pay off, but new CEO Hammad announced a further revamp of the airline, including cutting 500 jobs, in an effort to ensure the recovery is sustained.
It said it made cost savings of GBP47 million in the financial year just ended and wants to amke about GBP71 million of savings in the current year.
The airline raised gross proceeds of GBP155.65 million in a placing and open offer last month, money it will use to strengthen its balance sheet and reduce its aircraft costs. It said Friday that its total cash stood at GBP218 million at the end of March following the fund raising.
Its said it has sold 20% of the seats available for the coming summer at its UK airline, up from 17% at the same time last year. It said Easter, which falls in April this year compared with March last year, was behind some of the increase.
"Encouragingly, the eight new routes launched in February from the UK's second largest city, Birmingham, have exceeded expectations with 30% of Summer 2014 seat capacity already sold," it said.
Irish airline Aer Lingus, meanwhile, said passenger numbers fell to 703,000 in March, from 757,000 a year earlier, with numbers down on both short-haul and long-haul routes. Traffic measured in revenue passenger kilometres was down 8.0%.
Its load factor declined to 74.7%, from 79.9% in March 2013, as its capacity only fell 1.6% on the year measured in available seat kilometres.
EasyJet shares were up 1.3% at 1,815 pence early Friday, the second-biggest rise on the FTSE 100. Flybe shares were up 2% at 144 pence. Aer Lingus shares were flat at EUR1.68 in London.
By Steve McGrath; stevemcgrath@alliancenews.com; @SteveMcGrath1
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