12th Oct 2021 08:57
(Alliance News) - easyJet PLC on Tuesday reported a continued recovery in bookings, after relaxation of UK travel rules released pent-up demand for flights abroad.
The airline was upbeat on the financial year ahead after trimming losses in the fourth quarter of the year that just ended, leading to a better-than-expected annual result.
It now expects to report a headline pretax loss for the financial year that ended September 30 of around GBP1.14 billion to GBP1.18 billion, compared to consensus of a GBP1.18 billion loss. The expected headline loss is still larger than the GBP835 million loss posted for financial 2020, which suffered only a half year's impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
easyJet's fourth quarter headline loss decreased by more than half from a year earlier with positive operating cash generated, helped by greater clarity on UK travel restrictions.
The budget short-haul carrier flew 17.3 million seats in its fourth quarter, operating 58% of pre-pandemic capacity after flying just 17% of 2019 volumes in the third quarter - and positively, it expects this to improve further to 70% in the first quarter of the new financial year.
"While intra-European demand led the recovery over the summer, the recent UK government announcement to remove and relax restrictions and testing has created positive booking momentum into the first quarter," said easyJet.
Looking ahead, easyJet said bookings for the first half of financial 2022, which began on October 1, are double those seen last year, with popular winter sun destinations including Egypt and Turkey singled out as driving the gain.
The airline expects capacity to continue to grow through financial 2022.
Looking ahead, easyJet said it was "clear recovery is underway", with city breaks beginning to return alongside growing demand for leisure travel from customers. However, no guidance was provided for financial 2022 due to limited visibility because of customers continuing to book closer to their travel date.
As with the prior year, the airline will not pay a dividend.
Annual results will be reported on November 30.
Shares were 2.6% lower at 630.88 pence each in London on Tuesday morning.
By Will Paige; [email protected]
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