The impact of disruption has cost easyJet £133 million during the last quarter but the airline insisted that its operations were now “much improved”.
The UK-based carrier made a pre-tax loss of £114 million for the three months ending on 30 June, as it suffered more cancellations than normal due to a “tight” labour market and “operational challenges”, which were affecting the entire aviation market. The airline revealed its quarterly loss one day after arch-rival Ryanair announced it had returned to profit.
EasyJet said that despite these problems it had still operated 95 per cent of its planned scheduled in the April-June quarter.
The airline has also cut some capacity during the current quarter, running until the end of September, partly due to capacity caps imposed by London Gatwick and Amsterdam Schiphol airports. EasyJet added that it would continue to “fine tune our schedule if required”.
Johan Lundgren, easyJet’s CEO, said: "Delivering for customers this summer remains our highest priority. During the quarter we carried seven times more customers than the same time last year and operated 95 per cent of our schedule.
“We have taken action to build the additional resilience needed this summer and the operation has now normalised.
“Despite the loss this quarter due to the short-term disruption issues, the return to flying at scale has demonstrated that the strategic initiatives launched during the pandemic are delivering now and with more to come.”
EasyJet carried 22 million passengers in the April-June quarter, up from just three million during the same period in 2021, as it reached 87 per cent of 2019 capacity.
Total revenue rose to £1.75 billion for the quarter, with ancillary sales outperforming pre-Covid levels following a 55 per cent increase on 2019 to reach an average of £22.07 per passenger, through improved sales of cabin bags and “bundles” of add-ons products.
EasyJet expects the current quarter, covering Europe’s peak summer travel period, to see capacity at 90 per cent of 2019 levels with load factors above 90 per cent.
The airline said that it believed that the capacity and cost issues caused by widespread disruption this summer were a “one-off” and there would be “greater resilience” in time for peak travel periods in 2023.