The carrier said on Tuesday (12 April) an ongoing focus on costs, including a firm grip on its network and strong sales of ancillary products, would result in easyJet trimming its half-year pre-tax loss to somewhere in the region of £535 million to £565 million.
The end of the UK’s core Covid travel restrictions in January prompted a "strong and sustained recovery in trading", said easyJet in a half-year trading update (six months to 31 March) on Tuesday (12 April).
“EasyJet’s performance in the second quarter has been driven by improved trading following the UK government’s decision to relax testing restrictions with an extra boost from self-help measures which saw us outperform market expectations," said Lundgren, easyJet chief executive.
“Since travel restrictions were removed, easyJet has seen a strong recovery in trading which has been sustained, resulting in a positive outlook for Easter and beyond, with daily booking volumes for summer currently tracking ahead of those at the same time in full-year 2019."
Since the restrictions were eased, easyJet said UK and EU bookings were now "broadly equal" following a 70:30 EU-UK skew last year owing to the severity of the UK’s travel restrictions.
"We continue to see strong demand for Q4 (three months to 30 September), especially on leisure routes where easyJet will be the biggest it has ever been," said easyJet, boosted – the carrier said – by "five aircraft worth" of additional slots in Greece.
Third-quarter capacity (three months to 30 June) is expected to run to around 90% of 2019 levels, with on-sale Q4 capacity "near Q4 2019 levels". Its tour operator easyJet holidays, meanwhile, is 70% sold for the summer "at significantly stronger margins compared to 2019".
Limited Ukraine exposure
Total H1 group revenue is expected to run to £1.5 billion and headline costs to £2.05 billion. EasyJet said pricing "remained competitive" during H1, with ancillary revenue per seat up from £12.47 in H1 2019 to £19.56 in H1 2022.
Net debt as of 31 March has come down from approximately £900 million as of 30 September 2021 to around £600 million, while cash, cash equivalents and deposits currently total circa £3.5 billion.
EasyJet is 64% hedged for fuel in H2 2022 (six months to 30 September 2022), 42% hedged for H1 2023 and 15% hedged for H2 2023. It said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was having a very limited effect on its flying, with its nearest network points – Budapest and Krakow – accounting for 1.4% of total capacity.
"Due to our geographical footprint, none of our flight routes need to operate into Ukrainian, Belarusian or Russian airspace, and therefore we are not exposed to re-routing and increased fuel burn," the airline added.
