EasyJet has seen a “strong, sustained recovery” following the relaxation of Covid-19 travel rules at the start of the year.
The UK-based short-haul carrier said that it still planned to operate summer capacity at “near” 2019 levels in its trading statement for the six months to 31 March.
EasyJet has also reduced its estimated half-year losses to between £535 million and £565 million, compared with a loss of £701 million during the same period in 2021. Total revenue is expected to come in at around £1.5 billion.
Johan Lundgren, easyJet’s chief executive said he expected the airline to be “one of the winners in the recovery”.
"EasyJet's performance in the second quarter has been driven by improved trading following the UK government's decision to relax testing restrictions with an extra boost from self-help measures which saw us outperform market expectations,” added Lundgren.
"Since travel restrictions were removed, easyJet has seen a strong recovery in trading which has been sustained, resulting in a positive outlook for Easter and beyond, with daily booking volumes for summer currently tracking ahead of those at the same time in 2019.”
The airline had to make hundreds of cancellations during early April due to more crew members testing positive for Covid-19 – easyJet said it had still flown 94 per cent of its planned schedule in the past week.
“We have proactively managed this in advance by making pre-emptive cancellations as early as possible, enabling the majority of our customers to rebook on to flights departing the same day,” said the carrier in its trading update.
Leisure travel continues to fuel easyJet’s recovery from the pandemic and its proportion of bookings between the UK and EU is now around 50:50, thanks to the end of the UK’s Covid travel restrictions.
EasyJet added that it had “very little exposure” in eastern Europe with no routes to Ukraine, Russia or Belarus affected by the ongoing war.
“Our nearest network points are Budapest in Hungary and Krakow in Poland which only account for 1.4 per cent of our total capacity,” said the airline.
“Additionally, due to our geographical footprint, none of our flight routes need to operate into Ukrainian, Belarusian or Russian airspace, and therefore we are not exposed to rerouting and increased fuel burn.”
EasyJet said that prices had “remained competitive” during the six-month period, although ancillary revenue per seat sold was now higher than pre-Covid levels.