easyJet flies more passengers on fuller planes in December
Budget airline easyJet managed to increase both its passenger numbers and load factor in last month, the company announced on Monday morning.
Budget airline easyJet managed to increase both its passenger numbers and load factor in last month, the company announced on Monday morning.
Passenger numbers, which represents the number of booked seats flown (irrespective of whether or not the customer turns up) increased by 4.9% to 4,339,836 in December 2012, compared with 4,135,562 the same month the year before.
This pushed up the rolling 12-month passenger number over 59m, up 6.7% year-on-year.
MoneyWeek
Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE
Sign up to Money Morning
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter
Meanwhile, the load factor - a key measure that airlines use to calculate how full their planes are - improved by 2.3 percentage points (pp) from 85.6% in December 2011 to 87.9% last month. The rolling 12-month load factor rose 1.4pp to 88.9%.
The airline reported in November that full-year revenue for the year ended September 30th 2012 had risen 11.6% to £3,854m, while pre-tax profit jumped 27.9% to £317m, after an average 7.1% increase in passenger numbers over the period.
The company more than doubled its dividend per share to 21.5p.
easyJet, with a market capitalisation of around £3.23bn, has seen shares surge by around a third (+32.18%) over the last three months.
Get the latest financial news, insights and expert analysis from our award-winning MoneyWeek team, to help you understand what really matters when it comes to your finances.
MoneyWeek is written by a team of experienced and award-winning journalists, plus expert columnists. As well as daily digital news and features, MoneyWeek also publishes a weekly magazine, covering investing and personal finance. From share tips, pensions, gold to practical investment tips - we provide a round-up to help you make money and keep it.
- 
LVMH is set to prosper as the wealthy start shopping againAfter two years of uncertainty, the outlook for LVMH is starting to improve. Is now a good time to add the luxury-goods purveyor to your portfolio?
 - 
Japan is still rising to new highs – here's how to investOpinion Political ructions in Japan are no obstacle to gains, and the return of inflation may even benefit stocks, says Max King. What is Japan doing right?
 
