easyJet traffic down 8% in April

7th May 2010 07:47

Flight cancellations following last month's volcanic ash cloud from Iceland left passenger numbers at easyJet down 7.6% on April 2009 and 800,000 less than expected.The low-cost airline sold 3.49m tickets in April, down from 3.78m a year earlier, but the company had expected to fly 4.3m passengers, which would have represented growth of 14%.It had also forecast a load factor of 86.2% compared with the 85.2% actually reported, although that was still up from the 84.2% seen in 2009."Around 200,000 of the 750,000 cancelled passengers were stranded, as a consequence of the disruption to our flying programme," said the carrier.Results for the six months to 31 March are due on 11 May.