easyJet Plc (EZJ.L, ESYJY.PK) Friday updated its loss forecast for the first half of the year, as the low-cost airline expects to deliver performance for the period in line with its previous guidance, helped partly by the early timing of Easter compared to last year.
In a separate statement, the airline reported higher passengers and load factor for the month of March.
According to the company, weakening of sterling against the euro, US dollar and Swiss Franc is likely to have had a 30 million pounds to 35 million pounds adverse impact in the first half, with an additional 5 million pounds adverse impact from changes in the fuel price.
However, the Board still expects a pre-tax loss for the first half between 60 million pounds and 65 million pounds compared with the previous guidance of 50 million pounds to 75 million pounds loss.
Carolyn McCall, easyJet's Chief Executive, said, "easyJet's performance over the first half reflects the continuing successful delivery of our strategy of low fares, coupled with friendly service on Europe's leading network. First half losses have been halved year on year through our disciplined approach to capacity deployment and a focus on cost management over winter.''
McCall noted that the company also benefited from rival airlines taking winter capacity out of market as well as an earlier Easter. The poor weather across the UK and northern Europe stimulated strong bookings in the last few weeks of the first half.
Revenue per seat growth at constant currency for the six months to March 31 was around 8.5 percent, driven partly by stronger than anticipated late bookings in the run up to Easter. This was marginally ahead of the guidance of around 6 percent to 8 percent growth at constant currency issued on January 24.
Cost per seat growth, excluding fuel, at constant currency was around 3.5 percent, within the guidance of 3.5 percent to 4.5 percent growth, despite load factors being 1.7 percentage points higher and amid adverse weather. The adverse weather led to higher than expected cancellations and as a result capacity growth was 3.3 percent compared to the forecast of 3.5 percent.
easyJet also said it has decided to exercise options for three A320 aircraft whilst it completes the fleet evaluation process.
The airline said, at current fuel and exchange rates, adverse year-over-year currency and fuel impact in the second half is expected to be around 15 million pounds.
Separately, the company announced traffic statistics for the month of March.
Passengers for the month, representing the number of earned seats flown, rose 5.3 percent to 4.87 million from 4.63 million in the prior year.
Since easyJet is a no-refund airline, earned seats for the company included seats that are flown whether or not the passenger turned up. Once a flight has departed, a no-show customer is generally not entitled to change flights or seek a refund.
Earned seats also included seats provided for promotional purposes as well as seats given to staff for business travel.
Load factor advanced 1.7 percentage points to 90.5 percent from 88.8 percent. This metric represents the number of passengers as a proportion of the number of seats available. No weighting of the load factor is carried out to recognize the effect of varying flight or stage lengths.
For the 12 months ending March, passengers grew 7.1 percent to 59.73 million and load factor advanced 1.4 percentage points to 89.4 percent.
EZJ.L is down 3.7 percent in early trade at 1,056 pence.
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