EasyJet reports 24% rise in passenger numbers

No-frills airline easyJet today said it carried nearly 900,000 more passengers in August than a year ago.

The firm’s planes flew 4.59 million customers in August, an increase of 24% after the Luton-based firm benefited from its recent acquisition of GB Airways from British Airways, as well as promotions and sales.

EasyJet’s planes were also fuller, with its load factor up four percentage points to 91.3%. This contrasts with British Airways, which reported a 2.7% decline in load factor for August on Wednesday.

EasyJet carried out heavy promotional activity in June and July with up to 20% off two million seats. This also gave a slight boost to August’s figures but most of the sales are aimed at boosting traffic in the autumn.

The airline is being hit by high oil prices and the company has warned annual profits could be as much as 42% lower than last year as it is faced with an increase of £185m (€229m) in its annual fuel bill.

It hopes to offset more than 50% of the price hikes through revenue growth and cost savings and has vowed to be “relentless” in addressing costs and efficiency.

The company is planning to cut capacity by 12% at Stansted this winter to focus on Gatwick and the GB Airways business.

This week the carrier launched a new route to Istanbul, bringing the total number of routes from Gatwick to 51 this winter.

It is the fifth new route to be added to the airline’s Gatwick base and it expects over 100,000 passengers to travel on the new service in the first 12 months.

The announcement also means that easyJet currently has 400 routes on sale across its network.

Over the last 12 months, easyJet has flown 42.9 million passengers at an average load factor of 83.9%. Rival Ryanair carried 55 million, filling 81% of its seats.