AIR travellers will “gravitate towards value” during financial difficulty, easyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said as the budget carrier signalled a significant narrowing of annual losses.
Mr Lundgren said that a record bounce-back in demand for travel during the summer will help elevate easyJet from £1.14 billion loss last year to full-year headline losses of between £170 million and £190m this year.
The airline said it included disruption costs of £75m, mainly from operational issues experienced across the industry in the third quarter.
The carrier also said it expects to deliver underlying pre-tax profits of between £470m and £490m over its final quarter to September 30 as passenger numbers rose to 24 million and revenues leapt to around £2.5bn from £1bn a year ago.
It pointed to resilient demand despite the cost of living crisis, with its flight programme during October and Christmas weeks back to levels seen before the pandemic.
The group is expecting to fly 20 million seats in the last three months of 2022, which is up 30 per cent on a year ago, while it added it was already seeing demand for next summer.
READ MORE: easyJet expands fleet at Scottish airport
It said: “The impact of Omicron, war in Ukraine and the industry wide issues experienced this summer all affected operational performance during the financial year.”
Mr Lundgren claimed the airline benefits when consumers focus on getting value for money during financial turbulence.
He said: “When households are coming under pressure ... they gravitate towards value.
“That is actually a good thing for us because we are primarily known for value for money.”
Mr Lundgren added: “Despite the difficulties that households have, we know that holidays and travel are top of the list when people prioritise what they want to do with their disposable income.
“Clearly there is uncertainty out there but, as we speak now, we have good booking momentum.”
The carrier insisted that efforts to tackle staff shortages and disruption meant its operational performance since the beginning of July was now better than in the final quarter before Covid hit.
It comes after holidaymakers were hit by flight delays and cancellations alongside lengthy queues as airports struggled to cope with the sudden ramping up of demand for overseas holidays.
Airports such as Heathrow and Gatwick told airlines to cut their flight schedules following scenes of chaos as staff shortages left them struggling with baggage handling, air traffic control and security.
Mr Lundgren said: “EasyJet achieved a record bounce-back this summer with fourth-quarter operating profit expected to be between £525m and £545m and passenger numbers almost doubling versus last summer to 24 million.”
He added: “Our summer 23 season went on sale last week and we were filling the equivalent of more than four A320 aircraft a minute in the opening hours, demonstrating the continued demand.”
Mr Lundgren flagged an “uncertain” wider economic backdrop, but said “easyJet is Europe’s largest operator at primary airports with one of the strongest balance sheets in the aviation industry”.
EasyJet earlier announced it would base additional aircraft at Edinburgh Airport, its largest Scottish hub, when it said this means it would have nine planes operating from Edinburgh from next summer, on 40 routes to destinations in the UK, elsewhere in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
The carrier also describes itself as the “largest airline at Glasgow”, providing flights to a total of 24 destinations in the UK, elsewhere in Europe and North Africa, across 12 countries.
Shares in easyJet closed up 2.67%, or 7.6p, at 292.7p.
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