easyJet sees solid increase in April passenger numbers

Budget airline easyJet saw a strong year-on-year increase in passenger numbers in April, whilst flying fuller planes.

The group flew 5,124,597 passengers last month, up 8.6% on the 4,717,402 in April 2011. This compares with the 4,629,241 flown in March 2012, up 4.4% year-on-year.

Worth noting, passenger numbers represent the number of earned seats flown, whether of not the passenger turns up as easyJet is a no-refund airline..

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Meanwhile, the load factor, which is a measure of how full its planes are, improved from 86.5% to 89.3% year-on-year. This was also ahead of the 88.8% load factor in March.

The group also said that the rolling 12-month number of passengers in April 2012 improved to 56,200,567, up 7.1% on last year, while the rolling 12-month load factor increased by one percentage point to 88.2%.

"Although the economic environment remains weak, easyJet's strategy of affordable fares and our focus on making it easy for our customers ensures that easyJet is well positioned to deliver good results for shareholders," the company Chief Executive Carolyn McCall said in late March.

In the airline's first half (ended March 31st), the group said that its financial performance is expected to exceed previous guidance due to "the strength of easyJet's network, focus on the customer, excellent operational performance, disciplined capital allocation and rigorous cost control combined with exceptionally low levels of disruption."

BC