Easyjet is set to nearly halve its losses over the winter season as the airline took advantage of other carriers cutting capacity.
The no-frills airline said that it would make a loss of £60-£65 million for the six months to the end of March, which compares to a loss of £112 million for the same period last year and a £153 million deficit in 2011.
Easyjet chief executive Carolyn McCall said: “First-half losses have been halved year-on-year through our disciplined approach to capacity deployment and a focus on cost management over winter.
“We have also benefited from rival airlines taking winter capacity out of the market, the earlier timing of Easter compared to last year and the poor weather across the UK and northern Europe which stimulated strong bookings in the last few weeks of the first half of the financial year.”
The airline also said that it was making “good progress on its evaluation of the next generation of short-haul aircraft” and had decided to take up options for three new Airbus A320 aircraft.
Easyjet is due to reveal its formal half-year results on May 15.
easyjet.com