LONDON (Alliance News) - Low-cost airline easyJet PLC Thursday said it now expects full-year pretax profit to be at the top end of its previous guidance because its fuel costs are lower than last year and revenue per seat has also come in at the top end of its expectations, but it did warn that fuel costs will be higher in the first half of the current year.
The airline said it now expects pretax profit to be between GBP470 million and GBP480 million, compared with its previous guidance of between GBP450 million and GBP480 million.
It said unit fuel costs in the second half of its financial year to end-September will be about GBP13 million below the figure for last year, slightly offset by a foreign exchange impact that will be GBP5 million more than last year.
It now expects revenue per seat for the full year to be about 6% up on the previous year, compared with its previous guidance of up to 6%.
It left its guidance for cost per seat excluding fuel unchanged at a 4% increase, which it put down to higher charges at regulated airports.
The new guidance contrasts with big rival Ryanair Holdings PLC, which last month cut its profit expectations, citing price competition on routes in the UK, Scandinavia, Spain and Ireland. It said it would react to the increased competition by reducing its own fares and cutting capacity on selected routes this winter.
"easyJet has delivered a strong performance in the last twelve months due to management action to generate value to our customers and maintain a tight control of costs combined with an unusually benign capacity environment," easyJet Chief Executive Carolyn McCall said in a statement, contrasting with Ryanair's complaint that airlines had too much capacity on many of its routes.
Despite the lower fuel costs for the past six months, easyJet warned that fuel costs in the first half of the current year will be about GBP20 million to GBP30 million higher than in the same period last year, while exchange rate moves will hit profits by about GBP10 million compared with last year.
It said it has hedged 67% of its fuel requirements for the 2014 year at an average rate of USD984 a tonne and 51% of its 2015 financial year needs at USD951 a tonne.
It said it has sold a quarter of available seats for the first half of the current financial year.
The company will publish its full-year results November 19.
Separately, easyJet said it flew 5.7 million passengers in September, up 4.8% from 5.5 million a year ago. Its load factor, a measure of how full its planes are, rose 1.2 percentage points to 89.7%. Passenger numbers on a rolling 12 month basis are up 4% to 60.8 million, while load factor is up 0.6 points at 89.3%.
Ryanair Wednesday said passenger numbers rose 3% on the year to 8.1 million in September, while it filled more seats on its planes with load factor up 1% to 85%. It has flown 80.4 million passengers in the 12 months to the end of September, an increase of 2% on the previous 12 months, while its load factor for the period was 82%.
easyJet shares were up 0.6% at 1,322.2 pence early Thursday, one of the biggest risers on the FTSE 100.
By Steve McGrath; stevemcgrath@alliancenews.com; @stevemcgrath1
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easyJet (EZJ)