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easyJet PLC on Tuesday revealed a quarterly loss after taking a £133 million hit from recent airport disruption, but insisted its operations are getting back to normal following cuts to its flight programme.
Revenue almost reached pre-pandemic numbers in the three months that ended June 30, easyJet's financial third quarter. It multiplied to £1.755 billion from £213 million a year ago, edging close to the £1.761 billion that easyJet posted in the third quarter of financial 2019.
In a trading update, the Luton Airport-based budget airline reported a group headline loss before tax of £114 million for the recent quarter, blaming ‘widespread operational challenges’ and flight cancellations due to staff shortages at airports.
‘We believe that these capacity/cost impacts are a one-off this summer as we would expect all parties to build greater resilience in time for 2023 peak periods,’ easyJet said.
The result marked an improvement on the £318 million loss seen a year ago, but comes despite easyJet's passenger numbers jumping more than sevenfold to 22 million in the quarter. The number of passengers flown represent about 87% of the third quarter of pre-pandemic financial 2019. The carrier added that it expects fourth-quarter capacity to be around 90% of the fourth quarter of financial 2019.
Chief Executive Johan Lundgren said its summer operations had now ‘normalised’ and were ‘much improved’ in July after recent moves by airports to demand a cut in flight programmes. easyJet said it remains focused on ensuring ‘smooth operations this summer’ and will continue to ‘fine tune’ its schedule, signalling further flight cuts if needed.
‘Fourth quarter schedule is now 71% booked, 1 percentage point ahead of this point in financial year 2019. Fourth quarter sold ticket yield is currently 13% above financial year 2019,’ the company added.
easyJet shares were up 2.0% to 381.20 pence each in London on Tuesday morning.
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