Easyjet has posted big losses on the back of months of UK airport hold-ups.
The Luton-based airline, which flies out of many of the UK’s biggest airports, said it made a £114 million loss before tax in the three months to June 30 - when airport disruption was at its worst.
It comes a day after fellow airline Ryanair said it had achieved a first-quarter profit of around £145 million despite airport disruption and a hit from the Ukraine war. But Ryanair warned its full-year outlook would be hard to predict.
Easyjet blamed its losses on “widespread operational challenges” and flight cancellations due to staff shortages at airports, many of which have struggled to deal with a jump in post-Covid traveller numbers after jettisoning staff during the quiet months of the pandemic. Back in May there were daily images of people queuing outside terminal buildings with passengers missing flights.
Easyjet said it operated just short of 46,800 flights in June - 1,500 less than in May. However the totalJune passenger numbers were up slightly at 7,645,000. Overall revenues for the quarter were £1,755 million.
The results marked an improvement on a £318 million loss reported a year ago. Chief executive Johan Lundgren said things had improved in recent weeks and the business would continue to fine tune its schedules, making more cuts if needed.
He said: "Delivering for customers this summer remains our highest priority. During the quarter we carried seven times more customers than the same time last year and operated 95 per cent of our schedule. We have taken action to build the additional resilience needed this summer and the operation has now normalised.
"Despite the loss this quarter due to the short-term disruption issues, the return to flying at scale has demonstrated that the strategic initiatives launched during the pandemic are delivering now and with more to come.
“This includes a step-change in ancillary yields, increasing 55 per cent versus the same period in 2019, and a record profit of £16 million generated in the quarter by EasyJet holidays which is on track to serve 1.1 million customers in the full year.
"EasyJet expects capacity to be around 90 per cent of Q4/19 across our network of major European airports, with load factors targeted above 90 per cent."
Airports such as Heathrow and Gatwick have told airlines to cut flights following scenes of chaos, as they struggled with baggage handling, air traffic control and security.
EasyJet said: “The unprecedented ramp up across the aviation industry, coupled with a tight labour market, has resulted in widespread operational challenges culminating in higher levels of cancellations than normal.”
It saw around 5 per cent of its flight schedule cancelled in the quarter as a result.
