easyJet passenger numbers ascend

6th Feb 2013 08:13

easyJet's passenger numbers grew in January continuing on from strong trading over the Christmas period, according to statistics released Wednesday. Last month the budget airline carried 3.8m customers, a 4.0% rise compared to the previous year. The group reported a load factor of 84.4% for the month. That compared to rival Ryanair's 1.0% fall in passengers to 4.35m for the same month.easyJet's data comes about two weeks after the brightly coloured, low-cost carrier unveiled a 9.2% rise in revenues of £833m for the first quarter to December 31st. The number of seats flown during the quarter grew by 5.0% to 15.5m and the number of passengers carried increased by 6.2% to 13.7m. Shares were up 2.06% to 968.00p at 8:33 Wednesday.The results arise in the wake of high-public public arguments between management and easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou about how the company is run. These battles culminated last month when Stelios threatened to sell part of his stake if the board goes ahead with plans to buy new aircraft and accused directors of "squandering" cash.Shortly after, the airline announced Chairman, Sir Mike Rake, would step down from the board this summer. RD