Easyjet was the top gainer on London’s FTSE exchange in early trading Wednesday after the airline announced better-than-expected results that indicated profit growth could be as high as 14 percent.
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MAG, which also owns East Midland and Bournemouth airports, saw its overall passenger numbers rise by 10.7% to 48.5 million in the year ending March 31, with growth at Stansted and Manchester exceeding that of Heathrow and Gatwick airports combined.
Budget airline easyJet raised its annual profits outlook after being buoyed by sun-seekers jetting off on beach holidays.
The firm said the strike disruption had not had as big an impact as feared on revenues per seat, which fell 2.8% rather than the 4% drop guided in May.
Hard operational environment due to increased levels of disruption including French ATC strike action and the fire at Fiumicino, which together caused 1,364 of the 1,463 flights cancelled in the quarter compared to a total of 648 flights cancelled in the same period previous year. Noting that Easyjet had already sold 77 percent of seats in the second half of its reporting year, she said “Our Q3 performance means that for the full year easyJet will grow revenue, profits and dividends”.
Cost per seat, including fuel, also decreased 3.3 percent on a reported basis.
Carolyn McCall, easyJet chief executive said: “Our Q3 performance shows that easyJet’s strategy continues to deliver, in particular with good performance in the UK and beach routes across Europe”.
Operations were disrupted by an air traffic controllers strike in France and a fire at the Rome Fiumicino airport a month later that continues to hinder operations for easyJet and others. This was largely in line with a consensus estimate of £638 million from a Reuters poll of 24 analysts.
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Capacity grew 4.7 percent to 20.8 million seats, and passengers carried, which represents the number of earned seats flown, increased 6.2 percent to 19.1 million from a year ago. According to the Financial Times, the 25 analysts offering 12 month price targets for easyJet Plc have a median target of GBX 1 880, with a high estimate of GBX 2 245 and a low estimate of GBX 1 500.
