EasyJet boosted by passenger numbers

Low-cost airline easyJet said that a smaller-than-expected first-half loss, helped by tight cost control and more business passengers, showed it could cope with growing competition and disruption to bookings from June’s soccer World Cup.

Shares in the British group, which have risen about 50% in the past year, dropped 6% in early trading, as some analysts expressed disappointment that it had broken a recent trend of upgrading forecasts.

However, they remained upbeat about the airline. “The initial share price reaction shows that the weight of expectation for easyJet is, unsurprisingly, increasing,” said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Richard Hunter. “The shares may be subject to some shorter- term profit taking, although the market consensus of the shares as a ‘buy’ remains firmly intact.”

CEO Carolyn McCall said: “The booking patterns are quite hard to read. In every single market people will watch the World Cup and then they will go away on holiday but they will wait for their team to go out.”

EasyJet posted a pretax loss of £53m (€65m) for the six months to March 31, a 13% improvement on the same period last year, and ahead of its own guidance for a loss of between £55m and £65m. Its number of business passengers rose 8.5%. Overall passenger growth was 4%.

— Reuters