Easyjet increased revenue by 14 per cent in the last three months of 2017 after benefiting from the collapse of competitors and Ryanair’s winter flight cancellations.
The low-cost carrier said it had experienced a “positive trading environment” with capacity reductions and lower growth rates in key markets following the demise of Monarch Airlines and Air Berlin, plus the administration of Alitalia, in 2017.
Easyjet’s revenue rose to £1.14 billion during the three months up to December 31, as passenger numbers surged by 8 per cent to 18.8 million. Load factor also improved by 2.1 percentage points to 92.1 per cent year-on-year.
Johan Lundgren, who took over as Easyjet’s CEO from Carolyn McCall in December, said: “My aim is to help Easyjet to go from strength to strength. Our customer proposition will continue to drive both passenger growth and loyalty. We have great revenue growth, strong cost control, a robust operation and a strong balance sheet.
“We expect to reach a series of milestones in 2018 including the roll out of our full summer schedule at our newly established base at Berlin Tegel, an increase in passenger numbers from 80 million to around 90 million.
“Worldwide by Easyjet will be expanded to around half of Easyjet's network allowing customers to connect to long-haul services, our fleet will increase to over 300 aircraft by spring 2018 and we will take delivery of our first A321neo aircraft.”