easyJet: passenger numbers up

Budget airline easyJet shook off fears of a slump in numbers as passenger figures jumped for the month of May.  

The Luton based carrier announced that, despite recent terror attacks and air traffic control strikes which contributed to 173 cancellations in that time, it carried almost 7 million passengers during May, an increase of 5.7% over the same period last year.

However, despite the good news there is a message of caution. The company said that its load factor – which measures how full its aircrafts are – slightly dipped lower than compared with 12 months ago.

The results show that easyjet made a half-year loss of 24 million GBP compared with 7 million GBP profit it made a year before.

The two main things to affect these results were the terror attacks in Paris in November and the Egyptian Air crash in October, which saw easyJet suspend its services to popular tourist destination Sharm el-Sheikh.

With falling oil prices set to have a knock on effect for travellers, easyJet will be preparing for a war on fares this summer with rival budget airlines stepping up the pace and increasing pressure to lower air fares.

Ryanair have stated that this year they will lower fares by an average of 7% and Chief Executive, Michael O’leary, said “if other airlines want to compete with us, then we will lower our fares again, if there a fare war in Europe, then Ryanair will be the winner.”

Written by: Team Flight-Delayed