5th Oct 2007 07:00
easyJet PLC05 October 2007 5 October 2007 EASYJET PASSENGER STATISTICS FOR SEPTEMBER 2007 ____________________________________________________________________ Month ending September 2007 September 2006 Change Passengers1 3,438,261 3,011,145 + 14.2% Load Factor2 85.2% 86.5% - 1.3 pp ____________________________________________________________________ Rolling 12 months ending September 2007 September 2006 Change Passengers1 37,230,079 32,953,287 + 13.0% Load Factor2 83.7% 84.8% - 1.0 pp Total Revenue (unaudited)3 £1,797m £1,620m + 11.0% __________________________________________________________________ Passenger growth remained strong for September, up 14.2% versus the same monthlast year. With the financial year now completed, we expect pre-tax profitgrowth to be towards the top end of our earlier guidance of 40% to 50%. However,total pre-tax profit for the year to 30 September 2007 will exceed thisguidance, taking into account a £11m one off benefit from the write-back of theinvestment in The Airline Group Ltd. Yields for the second half, measured as total revenue per seat, were down 6.8%versus last year. This is in line with our guidance and reflects our commitmentto offering Europe's lowest fares to the most convenient airports. As we havepreviously stated, we will show substantial improvement in operating costs andsecond half unit costs, excluding fuel, will be reduced by around 10%. We will continue to execute our stated strategy in the new financial year,adding 15% capacity and further improving return on equity. During the winter weexpect total revenue per seat, including revenues from bag charging, to bebroadly in line with last year. Growth continues to focus on Southern Europe, in particular Milan and Madrid,where we have now based a total of 12 aircraft. Our network developmentcontinues apace and yesterday we announced plans to significantly increase ourpresence in France. The launch of our 18th and 19th bases at Paris Charles deGaulle and Lyon underpins our position as France's number one low-cost carrier. Andy Harrison, easyJet Chief Executive said: "We are pleased with our performance over the last financial year havingachieved significant improvement in margins despite the doubling of APD in theUK and record fuel prices." Preliminary results will be reported on 20 November 2007. For the next financialyear the format of our monthly traffic statistics will change slightly, withmore detailed quarterly trading updates replacing 12 month rolling revenue data. END For further details please contact: easyJet plc Financial:Andrew Barker, Investor Relations +44 (0) 1582 525 982 Press:Toby Nicol, Corporate Communications +44 (0) 1582 525 339 1.Represents the number of earned seats flown. Earned seats include seats thatare flown whether or not the passenger turns up because easyJet is a no-refundairline, and once a flight has departed a no-show customer is generally notentitled to change flights or seek a refund. Earned seats also include seatsprovided for promotional purposes and to staff for business travel. 2. Represents the number of passengers as a proportion of the number of seatsavailable for passengers. No weighting of the load factor is carried out torecognise the effect of varying flight (or "stage") lengths. 3. Represents statutory revenue (unaudited). This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock ExchangeRelated Shares:
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