Revenue Per Seat Rises 10%
UK budget airline easyJet announced on Thursday that it anticipates reporting a record pretax profit in the fourth quarter and a 10% increase in revenue per seat. The company swung to an adjusted pretax profit in the third quarter, with passenger numbers rising to 23.45 million from 22 million last year.
Strong Booking Momentum for Winter Season
easyJet reported strong booking momentum for the upcoming winter season, with sold ticket yields and load factors performing ahead of the prior year. The airline’s planned capacity for the December quarter is also up by more than 15%.
Positive Outlook for the New Financial Year
Analyst Richard Hunter from interactive investor noted that easyJet’s momentum should carry over to the first quarter of the new financial year. He added, “it is difficult to avoid the conclusion from these numbers that, operationally and financially, easyJet is flying.”
Headline Pretax Profit Reaches £203 Million
The headline pretax profit, which excludes exceptional and other one-off metrics, amounted to £203 million for the three months ended June 30. This marks a significant improvement compared to the loss of £114 million for the same period in 2022.
Strong Performance from easyJet Holidays
easyJet Holidays reported a pretax profit of £49 million for the period and is expected to reach over £100 million for the full year. The company stated that this will contribute to a robust overall outcome for the year.
Revenue Increases to £2.36 Billion
Revenue for the quarter rose to £2.36 billion from £1.76 billion. Total revenue per seat saw a notable increase of 23% to reach £81.08. Passenger revenue also climbed to £1.50 billion from £1.15 billion, while airline ancillary revenue rose to £622 million from £486 million the previous year.
Load Factor Reaches 90%
The load factor, a measure of how full a plane is, reached 90%, up from 88% the year before.
Positive Outlook for Q4
Chief Executive Johan Lundgren expressed optimism for the fourth quarter, stating, “We continue to see good momentum as we move into the fourth quarter where we will be operating over 160,000 flights and expect to deliver another record pretax profit performance.”
