Chief executive Johan Lundgren said on Thursday (19 May) the budget carrier expected to operate 90% of 2019 capacity in the airline’s third quarter (six months to 30 June) and 97% in Q4 (three months to 30 September).

EasyJet holidays, meanwhile, is "on track", said Lundgren, to carry more than 1.1 million customers in the year to 30 September, which would see it become the UK’s third largest tour operator after Tui and Jet2holidays.

"We have transformed the airline during the pandemic, which has enabled us to emerge with renewed strength," said Lundgren as easyJet recorded a reduced first-half (six months to 31 March) loss before tax of £545 million, down from £701 million a year earlier.

"As we return to a more normal summer season, we are ready to capture the increased levels of demand right across our network," he continued. "We are confident in our plans for summer, which will see us reach near-2019 flying levels, and look forward to competing with our renewed strength in the post-pandemic recovery of European aviation."

Lundgren said a tighter grip on capacity had been key to easyJet’s emergence from the Covid crisis; H1 load factor improved from 63.7% a year ago when it offered 6.4 million seats and flew 4.1 million passengers to 77.3% in the current financial year when it offered 30.3 million seats and flew 23.4 million passengers.

Since Easter, said Lundgren, easyJet has been operating in excess of 1,600 flights a day flying up to 250,000 passengers. He acknowledged the "well-documented operational issues" that have beset the industry since Covid restrictions were lifted, stressing easyJet had taken steps to strengthen its "operational resilience" this summer.

"We expect to operate 90% of FY19 capacity in Q3 and we have capacity on sale of around 97% of FY19 flying in Q4, with easyJet holidays now on track to carry over 1.1 million customers this financial year," he said.

Lundgren said despite a particularly challenging period in early April, where easyJet had to "proactively manage its schedule" through pre-emptive cancellations while stepping up recruitment, demand was undimmed.

"Bookings continue to be strong as we have seen demand, post the impact of the Omicron variant, returning with the removal of travel restrictions," he said. "Booking patterns have remained shorter than they were pre-pandemic. However, in the last 10 weeks, bookings have consistently been above the levels in the same period of 2019."

"EasyJet holidays is continuing to build and remains on track to carry more than 1.1 million passengers in FY22 with over 70% of the programme sold."

Another area Lundgren highlighted was easyJet’s efforts to optimise its network and reallocate seats from one market to another. "EasyJet has reduced its losses year-on-year, at the better end of guidance," he said.

"The pent-up demand and removal of travel restrictions provided for a strong and sustained recovery in trading which has been further boosted as result of our actions. These include the radical reallocation of aircraft, which has seen more than 1.5 million seats moved to the best performing markets."

EasyJet said second-half (six months to 30 September) capacity had recovered to exceed 2019 levels across both its leisure and domestic operations, at 113% and 104% respectively. Business and city traffic, though, is yet to fully recover with demand still below 2019 levels.

Lundgren also hailed a "step change" in ancillary sales, with first-half airline ancillary revenue per seat up by 44.6% year-on-year from £10.46 to £15.12. EasyJet said new ancillary products launched over the past year had contributed to the uptick.

"The steps we have taken to transform our ancillary offering are delivering significant levels of incremental revenue generation without cannibalising our ticket revenue," said Lundgren.

Total revenue for the six months to 31 March was just shy of £1.5 billion, up from £240 million in H1 2020/21.