Travellers choose easyJet in July

No frills airline easyJet has reported a strong rise in both passenger numbers and load factor in July.

The total number of people booking on flights in the month was 5,860,272, up 8% on July 2011.

This figure does not necessarily translate directly into revenue as it includes seats provided for promotional purposes and to staff for business travel.

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The load factor, which shows the number of passengers as a proportion of the number of seats available, rose 0.8 percentage points on the prior year, reaching 92.5%.

Over the 12 months to the end of July the rolling passenger total rose 7.5% to 57,800,475.

The load factor over that period was 88.8% , a rise of 1.6% compared to the previous 12 months.

In late July shares in easyJet took off after it posted a 10.5% increase in revenue for the quarter to end-June from the same time a year earlier.

Total revenue increased to £1.033bn as revenue per seat grew 2.8% due to the fall in the euro year on year.

At the time Chief Executive Carolyn McColl put the success down to the airline's focus on the customer, tight operational and cost management, and strict allocation of capital across its network.