easyJet's third quarter profit improved by £317 million, year on year, as demand for its network and services continues to be strong. The airline recorded a profit before tax of £203 million.
During Q3 easyJet flew 26.2 million seats, a 5% increase on the same period last year when easyJet flew 24.9 million seats. Load factor was 90% (Q3 FY22: 88%) with load factor increasing to 91% in June.
Johan Lundgren, chief executive of easyJet, said: "Our Q3 performance has been underpinned by strong passenger demand for easyJet's network and services. We continue to provide great value to customers with around half of easyJet's fares currently on sale still under £50.”
The airline recorded revenue per seat increase of 23% year on year alongside headline cost per seat ex fuel reducing by 2% and easyJet holidays PBT of £49 million is driving the Group towards a strong outcome for FY23.
Based on current booking trends, easyJet expects Q4 to deliver another record PBT performance with RPS up by around 10% year on year. Moving into this winter, easyJet is seeing good booking momentum, with sold ticket yields and load factors ahead year on year, and planned capacity up over 15% for the December quarter. The airline expects Headline cost ex fuel to reduce year on year and easyJet holidays continues to see demand growth, with winter bookings up >100% year on year.
"We continue to see good momentum as we move into Q4 where we will be operating over 160,000 flights and expect to deliver another record PBT performance. This winter we are adding more than 15% capacity and we see bookings ahead of the same period last year,” Lundgren added.
easyJet currently has 163 aircraft on order for delivery through to 2028. We are now running a process to secure additional firm order positions for our longer-term fleet plan. This would allow easyJet to replace older aircraft with additional options to deliver future growth.
easyJet’s headline cost per seat ex fuel reduced 2% in the quarter due to no wet lease aircraft being within the fleet and a much-improved operational performance compared to the same period last year.
During the quarter, easyJet repaid $950 million of debt under the UKEF. This follows the 500 million Eurobond which was repaid in February 2023. The UKEF has been replaced by a new undrawn five-year sustainability linked term loan facility of $1.75 billion, extending easyJet's debt maturity profile, whilst maintaining available liquidity and reducing the group net financing costs.