easyJet passenger numbers go up 7.1% in March

easyJet passenger numbers go up 7.1% in March

	Published : Sun, 09 Apr 2006 13:45 By : Paula Demarzio Print this Story

LONDON: British budget airline easyJet Plc. claimed a 7.1 per cent increase in its passenger numbers for March, which stood at 2.75 million, compared with March of 2005.

However, the carrier's load factor -- passengers as a proportion of the number of seats available -- fell 4.8 percentage points to 86.3 pct. The company said this was "slightly ahead of expectations".

Luton-based easyJet said its year-on-year seat capacity grew 13 per cent and the lower rate of growth of 7 per cent is to be viewed against the high loads in March 2005 as a result of Easter falling in that month. Passenger numbers were up 14.5 million to 30.9 million during the rolling 12 months up to end-March 2006, while the load factor was down 0.5 percentage points to 84.1 per cent. The airline earned a total revenue of 1.42 billion pounds, which is up 17.7 per cent compared with the corresponding previous year period.

The company said it is adding to its fleet strength to offer more routes and flights from an increasing number of base airports. It plans to fly 122 aircraft by 30 September compared with 109 a year earlier. It has opened its 16th airbase -- at Milan Malpensa -- in March and started five new routes from there.

easyJet intends to operate flights to Morocco, Turkey and Croatia in June and July.

The company had forecast in February that its first half to end-March pre-tax losses would be 45 million pounds, almost a doubling of the figures because of a 50 per cent increase in unit fuel costs and the timing of Easter this year. It, however, said the guidance for the full year to end-September 2006, remained unchanged -- "mid to high single-digit percentage profit growth". In the fiscal ending September 2005, the company had made a pretax profit of 82.6 million pounds.

easyJet shares were up 7-1/2 pence, or 2 per cent at 339-1/2 pence, valuing the company at 1.38 billion pounds. The stock had fallen sharply Wednesday when one of its main investors, Icelandic company FL Group, had sold off its entire stake in the company, thereby ending speculation that it was planning acquisition of the airline.