easyJet passengers rise to 5.2m in August

6th Sep 2010 07:08

Budget airline easyJet said it carried 5.2m passengers in August, up 8.4% from 4.8m passengers a year earlier.The August load factor rose to 92.3% from 91.8% the same month a year earlier, making 86.9% for the rolling 12 months.The airline carried 48.4m passengers in the 12 months, up 7.7% from 44.9m the same time a year earlier, it said.The figures are in contrast to those released by British Airways on Friday. It saw a 2.9% fall in traffic last month from August 2009 as nervous consumers held back on expensive holidays.EasyJet is coping well with tough economic conditions. It said in July that sales in the three months to June were up by 5.3% from the same period the previous year to £759.2m.While sales are still buoyant at easyJet, the company is in dispute with its founder and major shareholder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou over the direction of the company.Sir Stelios, who is threatening the airline over the use of the "easy" name, has repeatedly questioned the company's growth plans.