easyJet lifted by quarterly update
Never miss an issue of Master Investor Magazine – sign-up now for free! |
The share price of budget airline easyJet (LON:EZJ) climbed by 6.99% to 1,242.66p (as of 11:00 GMT) after the firm’s revenues for the three months to 31st December rose by 13.7%. This was driven by a 15.2% increase in passenger numbers that came despite a lower than anticipated increase in capacity. Revenues per seat were slightly below the same period of 2017 due to unique trading conditions in the prior year such as the Air Berlin and Monarch bankruptcies.
Chief executive Johan Lundgren said: “easyJet has made a good start to the 2019 financial year with robust customer demand and ancillary sales, driving solid revenue generation. This was underpinned by good operating and on-time performance across the network, with the exception of the disruption caused by the Gatwick closures due to drone sightings. There has been be a one-off cost impact from this incident, but underlying cost progress is in line with expectations. I am proud of the way our teams worked around the clock to mitigate the impact of the incident and looked after affected customers.
“Recognition of the easyJet brand continues to grow. We made good progress on our strategic initiatives; holidays, business, loyalty and data during the quarter.
“For the first half of 2019, booking levels currently remain encouraging despite the lack of certainty around Brexit for our customers. Second half bookings continue to be ahead of last year and our expectations for the full year headline profit before tax are broadly in line with current market expectations“.
Comments (0)