easyJet books 3.4% more passengers in November

Budget airline easyJet was flying with fuller planes last month, as passenger numbers rose by 3.4%, compared with November last year.

Some 3.82m people bought seats with the airline in November, up from 3.69m the year before.The firm's no-refund policy means that passenger figures do not include those who do not turn up for the flight.

Passenger growth had slowed from the 8% increase seen in October, when just under five million passengers booked seats with easyJet.

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Nevertheless, the 12-month rolling passenger total (ending November) rose to 54.99m, 11.2% higher than at the same point in 2010.

Meanwhile, the 'load factor' - which measures the number of passengers as a proportion of the number of seats available - rose by 2.6 percentage points (pp) to 88.3% in November.

Last month, Credit Suisse raised its target price for the stock and reiterated its outperform rating, saying that the "capacity outlook inspires winter confidence".

The broker said that capacity cuts at key easyJet bases (including Stansted, Malpensa and Madrid) are encouraging on pricing developments.

"We think these cuts should continue to flow through as booking levels for weaker carriers disappoint, prompting late competitor withdrawals and attractive last minute fares for EZJ. As such, we think the current mid-single digit revenue per seat run rate seen by EZJ through winter can be exceeded," Credit Suisse said on 16 November.

BC