Total revenue for the business hit £930 million, down 0.1% on the previous year as revenue which was generated by increased passenger volumes and a higher load factor was hit by reduced revenue per seat whilst negative foreign exchange movements cost £32 million.
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Offsetting the gain from lower energy costs is dampened demand for travel to Egypt and Paris. For the first quarter as a whole revenue per seat was down by 3.7% at constant currency.
A Russian airliner crashed near Egypt’s Red Sea holiday destination on October 31, killing all 224 people on board.
The cancellation of flights to Sharm impacted revenue per seat by 1.5% while fall-off in demand following the Paris terrorist attacks impacted revenue per seat by 2%.
But EasyJet said forward bookings for the second quarter were showing a marked improvement in revenue per seat compared to November and December.
“We did not cut prices to the extent that some other carriers did and that was a deliberate strategy from our perspective”, Chief Executive Carolyn McCall said on an investor call on Tuesday.
It had already announced it would not resume the Egypt flights until 27 May at the earliest.
EasyJet Plc forecast that earnings will rise 7.6 percent this year as Europe’s second-biggest discount airline sees the benefits of a slump in oil prices and holds back spending.
“This will ensure that easyJet continues to win and continues to grow revenue, profit and dividends”, she pointed out.
Low-priced airline easyJet reports a continued robust commercial performance in the three months to the end of December with strong management action on cost delivering stable margins.
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EasyJet said that for the year to September 30, it was on course to meet market forecasts for pretax profit of 738 million pounds ($1.1 billion), helped by a lower fuel bill and better than expected cost-savings.
