easyJet Share News (EZJ)

(Sharecast News) - Budget airline easyJet said it expected to deliver full year pre-tax profit of between £570m - £580m, in the upper half of previous guidance and despite the impact of strike action and air traffic restrictions across Europe.In a trading statement, the low-cost carrier said it would deliver a "strong performance" in the final quarter, citing robust customer demand."Disruption across Europe continues to be an industry wide issue and is having an impact on revenue, cost and operational performance, with the main causes being European industrial action and air traffic restrictions," the company said.Passenger numbers for the full year excluding Tegel airport in Germany were expected to increase by 5.4% to around 84.6m, driven by an expected increase in capacity of 4.2% to 90.3m seats, lower than originally planned due to the level of external disruption, the company said.Load factor for the full year is expected to increase by 1 percentage point to 93.6%.Headline losses for Tegel operations were expected to be around £115m, an improvement on previous guidance. The expected total loss for Tegel had now improved to be in line with original guidance of around £160m with break even forecast to be the 2019 financial year.The airline expected to have flown around 4.9m seats during the financial year and load factors remained strong, at 85% for the fourth quarter, highlighting positive customer uptake.It also forecast further cuts in non-headline costs for the year to £45m.For 2019, easyJet said it expected capacity to grow by around 10% to 105m seats with half representing the annualisation of Berlin flying, as well as the benefit of fleet up-gauging in summer 2018.Foreign exchange movements were expected to hit headline pre-tax profits by £10m.First half revenue per seat at constant currency was forecast to fall by low to mid-single digits reflecting a continuation of positive trading offset by a number of one-off revenue benefits from the first half of 2018 including the bankruptcies of Monarch and Air Berlin, as well as the impact from Ryanair's winter flight cancellations.Full year headline cost per seat excluding fuel at constant currency was forecast to be flat, representing an expected decrease in underlying cost per seat excluding fuel at constant currency and offset by inflationary airport and crew pay deals and investment in the business.The 2019 unit fuel bill would be £55m - £105m adverse, easyJet added.