Low-cost airline easyJet has said passenger demand was hit by the Omicron variant last month - but added it had seen a bounce-back in bookings from the move to scrap Covid travel tests.
The airline said Omicron saw its load factor, a measure of how well it fills its planes, slump to 67 per cent in December after recovering past 80 per cent in October and November.
Despite the impact of Omicron, easyJet slashed headline pre-tax losses in its first quarter to the end of December to £213 million, down from £423 million a year earlier.
There has been a “step change” in bookings since the January 5 announcement that pre-departure Covid testing would be scrapped for fully vaccinated arrivals entering England, with demand buoyed further by last week’s news of restriction-free travel from February 11.
While Omicron is expected to continue to have a short-term impact on its performance in the quarter to the end of March, easyJet 's flight programme will “ramp up” from just 50 per cent of 2019 levels in January to near pre-pandemic levels between July and September.
Chief executive Johan Lundgren said: “ easyJet produced a significant year-on-year improvement in the first quarter, despite the short-term impact of Omicron in December.”
He added: “Booking volumes jumped in the UK following the welcome reduction of travel restrictions announced on January 5, which have been sustained and then given a further boost from the UK Government’s decision earlier this week to remove all testing requirements.
“We believe testing for travel across our network should soon become a thing of the past. We see a strong summer ahead, with pent-up demand that will see easyJet returning to near-2019 levels of capacity with UK beach and leisure routes performing particularly well.”
The airline has launched a January pay day promotion with 800,000 seats from £19.99 – including over February half term.
The sale covers travel from February 1 until September 30, 2022, providing customers with the opportunity to book a last-minute winter break or to plan ahead and look forward to a long-awaited summer holiday.
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