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* Profit to fall more than 25 percent in 2015-2016
* Hit by 90 million pound currency headwind
* Says trend of lower ticket prices to continue
* Shares fall 6 pct (Adds analyst comment, share price)
By Sarah Young
LONDON, Oct 6 (Reuters) - British budget airline easyJet warned that annual profit had fallen by more than aquarter and hinted that trading would remain tough as farescontinue to decline and a weak pound weighs, sending its sharesdown 6 percent.
The profit decline is the first since 2009 and in partreflects easyJet's exposure to the security-hit destinations ofEgypt and Turkey and the French cities of Paris and Nice.
That combined with the devaluation of the pound sinceBritain voted to leave the EU in June mean that easyJet hasfared worse this year than its bigger low-cost rival, Ireland's Ryanair.
Shares in easyJet dropped 6.4 percent to 938 pence by 0840 GMT, their lowest level since 2013. They are down 45 percentthis year, the second worst performer on Britain's bluechip 100 index.
easyJet said pretax profit would be between 490 millionpounds and 495 million pounds ($624-629 million) for the year tothe end of September, below an already reduced analyst consensusforecast for 497 million pounds.
The airline had warned in July that uncertainty meant itcould not give a profit forecast as it usually does at thattime.
The weaker pound will result in a 90 million pound hit toprofit in both 2015-16 and the new financial year after sterlingfell to its lowest level against the dollar in three decades.
Chief Executive Carolyn McCall said that the carrier hadbeen disproportionately affected by disruption this year andthat she was confident in its future.
"The current environment is tough for all airlines, buthistory shows that at times like this the strongest airlinesbecome stronger," she said.
easyJet's ticket prices fell 8.7 percent over the last threemonths and the company expects the trend to continue into thecurrent quarter, suggesting intense competition in the Europeanshort-haul market driven by low-fuel prices showed no sign ofletting up.
Ryanair said in September that fares could fall by between10 and 12 percent over the six months between September andMarch.
Analysts at several brokerages said the combination ofcurrency headwinds and lower fares would prompt them to cuttheir profit forecasts for the 2016/17 financial year by as muchas 10 percent.
"Given the seasonality of easyJet and the airline industry,we see it as unlikely there will be a positive catalyst muchbefore summer next year," said Liberum's Gerald Khoo, who ratesthe stock a "sell".
Cantor analyst Robin Byde argued that, like Ryanair,easyJet, was well placed to handle a competitive market,underlining their threat to the established carriers likeBritish Airways, Lufthansa and Air France-KLM.
"For me, it's still mainly easyJet and Ryanair against therest, and the low-cost carriers are frankly discounting quiteaggressively at the moment to keep cabins full and to keep theirgrowth plans on track," said the analyst, who has a "buy"recommendation on easyJet. ($1 = 0.7868 pounds)
(Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by Kate Holton)
