Easyjet has raised its fares by more than 8 per cent, despite lower fuel costs, as it takes advantage of the failures of Monarch Airlines, Alitalia and Air Berlin and the troubles at its arch-rival Ryanair.
Last year the carrier’s pre-tax profits fell by a fifth to £408 million, but analysts predict that they may rise as high as £500 million in the 12 months to September. Its shares jumped nearly 6 per cent to a two-year high of £16.52.
Easyjet carried 81 million passengers last year and is the dominant airline at Gatwick and Luton airports. It is one of the three main airlines flying into and out of Britain alongside Ryanair, whose growth has slowed markedly because of crewing issues, and British Airways, which has more than half the take-off and landing slots at Heathrow.
Between October and December, the first three months of Easyjet’s financial year, it increased its revenues by 14 per cent to £1.14 billion. Basic fare revenue rose by 13 per cent to £914 million, ahead of the 8 per cent rise in passenger numbers to 18.8 million. Ancillary revenue, the extras that Easyjet charges for luggage, food and drink and allocated seats, jumped by 20 per cent to £226 million. The average revenue per seat rose from £51.64 to £55.99.
The airline said that it expected revenues to continue to rise at between 5 per cent to 10 per cent in its second quarter, with the fuel bill, the largest single cost for any airline, for the six months to the end of April likely to be as much as £65 million lower than last year.
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Johan Lundgren recently replaced Dame Carolyn McCall as chief executive after she was appointed head of ITV. The former Tui travel group director said that he expected passenger numbers to rise to 90 million this year, with a little over half the growth coming in Germany from the takeover of Air Berlin’s operations at Tegel airport. Air Berlin’s 25 aircraft plus new deliveries from Airbus are expected to swell the fleet from 221 to 300 this year.
Peter Duffy, the commercial director. has left. The role is being ditched, with the responsibilities split between Robert Carey, the strategy director who joined in the autumn from McKinsey, the management consultancy, and a yet to be appointed chief data officer. Paul Moore, the communications director who was at the centre of a court battle between Virgin Atlantic and BA over price-fixing more than a decade ago, has left to join Dame Carolyn at ITV.