easyJet flies more passengers on fuller planes in May

6th Jun 2013 07:13

easyJet flew more passengers and filled more seats on planes in May, according to the budget airline's traffic statistics released on Thursday morning.The firm said that passenger numbers - these represent the number of earned seats flow, whether or not the customer turns up, as easyJet is a no-refund airline - increased by 3.4% year-on-year to 5.61m in May.Meanwhile, the load factor - which represents the number of passengers as a proportion of seats available - improved by 10 basis points (bp) to 88.1%.The figures pushed passenger numbers for the rolling 12-month ending May up by 5.6% to 60.05m, while the load factor rose 70bp to 89.2%.The company impressed the market last month with its results for the first half ended March 31st, in which it reported that losses almost halved on a 9.3% increase in revenue.Prime Markets reiterated its positive stance on the stock earlier this week, saying that its impressive rise over the past 12 months is set to continue as "appetite for the company remains undiminished".The share price has jumped 61% so far in 2013 and now stands around 155% higher than where it was last June."With the sheer growth momentum around easyJet if anything accelerating, the general consensus of the stock as a 'buy' is likely to remain in force, in spite of the recent market correction," said Prime Markets' Head of Dealing Richard Curr on Tuesday.