Easyjet shares take off after upping H2 outlook and dividend

Easyjet was flying high after reporting a strong finish to the year on Friday, with the group increasing its outlook for the second half after higher revenue per set led to an upbeat end of summer trading.The low cost flyer has upped its profit forecasts for the second half from between £545m and £570m to between £575m and £580m, after seeing around a 2% increase in revenue per seat and its unit fuel costs totalling around £2m in favourable terms compared to its previous expectations of an adverse £5m.The group has also benefitted from the Air France pilots' strike in September, which is expected to increase easyJet's revenue by around £5m.The group said its performance would lead to its largest ever ordinary dividend payment, as it was also proposing to increase the proportion of its profits after tax paid in dividends from 33% to 40%.Chief executive Carolyn McCall said: "easyJet has continued to execute its strategy, delivering another strong performance in the second half of the year. This has enabled easyJet to deliver record profits for the fourth year in a row."We finished the year strongly. Our performance demonstrates our continued focus on cost and progress against all our strategic revenue priorities and further emphasises easyJet's structural advantage against both legacy and low-cost competition. The budget airline anticipates that at current fuel and exchange rates, its unit fuel bill for the first six months of financial year 2015 is likely to decrease by around £20m compared to the half year ended 31 March 2014.In addition, exchange rate movements are likely to have around a £10m favourable impact compared to the six month period.The airline also posted its September passenger numbers, which showed a 7.5% increase in year-on-year passenger numbers from 5.71m to 6.14m, while the load factor climbed from 89.7% to 92.2%.On a 12-month rolling basis, passenger numbers climbed 6.6% to 64.77m, while the load factor rose from 89.3% to 90.6%.