In a trading update, easyJet has posted a strong performance in its first quarter of trading for the three months ending December 31, 2017.
Total revenue in the first quarter increased by 14.4% to £1,140 million reflecting an increase of 1.4 million passengers carried through the period, a 6.6% increase in revenue per seat at constant currency1, a strong increase in ancillary revenue as well as a benefit from foreign exchange.
The number of passengers carried increased by 8% to 18.8 million, driven by a growth in capacity of 5.5% to 20.4 million seats and load factor increasing by 2.1 percentage points to 92.1%.
Commenting, Johan Lundgren, easyJet Chief Executive said: “easyJet delivered a strong start to the financial year with a significant growth in revenue in part driven by an increase in passengers flown and strong growth in inflight and ancillary sales as we offer more and better quality options for our passengers. We continue to focus on cost, generating approximately £28 million in lean savings in the quarter, and we completed our acquisition of part of Air Berlin’s operations at Berlin Tegel.
“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. There’s a lot to look forward to.”
Revenue growth
Ancillary revenue increased by 20% to £226.3 million compared to £188.0 million in the year-ago period. Headline cost per seat, including fuel, improved by 1.6%, due to low fuel prices and cost control. Headline cost per seat excluding fuel at constant currency increased by 1%, in line with guidance,
easyJet’s On Time Performance (OTP) is continuing to improve with 81% of flights arriving within 15 minutes in Q1 2018, despite the impact of the industrial action and severe weather noted above.
easyJet completed the acquisition of part of Air Berlin’s operations at Berlin Tegel airport on the 15 December and successfully started its flying programme on January 5, operating a reduced winter schedule with a fleet of mainly wet lease aircraft.