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(Alliance News) - easyJet PLC said Tuesday it has started its new financial year strongly, and expects its interim loss to improve on the loss seen last year.
easyJet recorded a GBP272 million loss in the six months to March 31, 2019.
Shares in the FTSE 100 budget airline were up 4.4% in early trading on Tuesday morning at 1,513.50 pence each - the best performer in London's blue-chip index.
In the first quarter of financial 2020, ended December 31, easyJet said its total revenue grew 9.9% year on year to GBP1.43 billion, with passenger revenue rising 9.7% to GBP1.12 billion and ancillary revenue adding 11% to GBP301 million.
Passenger numbers in the first quarter increased by 2.8% to 22.2 million, with capacity increasing 1.0% to 24.3 million seats. Load factor was up 1.6 percentage points to 91.3%.
Airline revenue per seat increased by 8.8%, exceeding management expectations.
"easyJet has delivered a strong performance in the quarter. The delivery of self-help initiatives, robust customer demand and low levels of competitor capacity drove outperformance in both our passenger and ancillary revenue per seat leading to an upgrade to our first half revenue guidance. Our cost performance was in line with expectations, while our Operational Resilience programme continued to be a driving force behind a robust operational performance," the airline said.
Underlying costs for the quarter were in line with expectations, with airline headline costs per seat, excluding fuel, rising by 4.3%. The rise was attributed to planned lower capacity growth; new aircraft deliveries; crew pay rises; and the strikes in France which caused 813 cancellations.
easyJet improved its on-time performance in the quarter, with 80% of planes landing within 15 minutes of scheduled arrival, up from 79% in the same period last year. easyJet suffered 1,274 cancellations - with the majority stemming from the strikes in France - and saw delays of over 3 hours decrease by 21%.
Looking ahead, easyJet is guiding for its full year capacity to grow by 3%, with interim capacity to rise by 1.5%. The interim guidance is slightly behind the previous guidance of 1.7%; this is to account for the strikes in France.
easyJet's capacity in financial 2019, ended September 30, was 105.0 million seats.
Revenue per seat in the first half is guided to grow by mid to high single digits - versus previous guidance of low to mid single digits. The airline's revenue per seat in the first half financial 2019 was GBP50.71.
Full-year cost per seat, excluding fuel, is to rise by low single digits, with the interim figure to rise by mid-single digits. The airline's cost per seat in financial 2019 was GBP56.74
The airline's full year fuel bill is guided around GBP1.64 billion. The company also noted its new Holidays business is expected to break-even in financial 2020.
By Paul McGowan; paulmcgowan@alliancenews.com
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