Passengers up 12% at easyJet in November

4th Dec 2009 07:39

Budget airline easyJet flew 12% more passengers in November than it did the year before and packed its planes better than last time.Passenger numbers increased to 3.35m from 2.99m and the low-cost carrier said the load factor, which measures how well planes are filled, increased to 84.8% from 83.9% in 2008.It has now flown 45.79m travelers over the past 12 months, up 3.2% on the corresponding period last year, while the load factor improved by 1.4 percentage points to 85.8%.Last month, the company reported full-year pre-tax profit halved due to higher fuel costs. For the year ended 30 September 2009 profit slumped to £54.7m from £110.2m the year before. Total revenue during the period increased 12.9% to £2.7bn. But boss pointed out at the time that easyJet was "one of the very few European airlines to make a profit during the last 12 recessionary months." He added, "We see a tough winter ahead. We are focussing our efforts on further cost savings and efficiency improvements together with optimising route profitability and aircraft allocation. We shall also benefit as our fuel hedges adjust to market prices. Putting all this together, at current fuel prices and exchange rates, we expect easyJet to make substantial profit improvement in 2010."