Yahoo Finance EasyJet summer bookings reach 2019 levels amid pent-up demand
EasyJet (EZJ.L) has reported that summer bookings in the last six weeks beat 2019 levels, with expectations to "emerge as one of the winners in the recovery" thanks to the removal of travel restrictions.
The Luton-based airline has turned its focus towards bringing back capacity after narrowing its estimated loss in a turbulent fiscal first half which saw Omicron infections rise.
Europe's second largest discount carrier said it had "ramped up" capacity, operating at 80% of full-year 2019 capacity in March alone.
Still, the low-cost airline could run out of recovery runway as it expects to post a headline loss before tax in the range of £535m ($696m) to £565m in the six months to 31 March. It posted a £701m loss in the year-earlier period.
EasyJet added that the removal of UK coronavirus travel measure on 24 January sparked a "strong and sustained recovery" resulting in the proportion of bookings between Britain and the European Union being "broadly equal".
The flying schedule for the current quarter will be about 90% of 2019 levels, the company said in a trading update on Tuesday. It's seeing strong demand in Greece, and expects to be the biggest carrier to the Greek islands this summer.
Meanwhile, passenger numbers in the quarter increased to 11.5 million, compared to 1.2 million in the second quarter of 2021.
The carrier said it was "little exposed" to the conflict in Ukraine and the ensuing economic fallout as it operates no routes into the country, Russia or Belarus.
"Our nearest network points are Budapest in Hungary and Krakow in Poland which only account for 1.4% of our total capacity," the company said.
Read more: Heathrow records busiest months since start of pandemic
"While restrictions have largely been lifted, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has added a new level of uncertainty to the market," said Allegra Dawes, senior airlines analyst at Third Bridge.
"While EasyJet is not exposed to routes in the Ukraine or Russia, our experts expect volatility in jet fuel pricing to further slow the pace of the airline's recovery."
Rising energy costs, the staffing issues and ramp-up challenges mean "the road to a full recovery remains long and bumpy," she added.
Shares in easyJet tumbled as much as 2.8% to 527.36 pence in early trade on Tuesday in London.
Johan Lundgren, easyJet CEO said: "EasyJet’s performance in the second quarter has been driven by improved trading following the UK government’s decision to relax testing restrictions with an extra boost from self-help measures which saw us outperform market expectations.
"Since travel restrictions were removed, easyJet has seen a strong recovery in trading which has been sustained, resulting in a positive outlook for Easter and beyond, with daily booking volumes for summer currently tracking ahead of those at the same time in FY19.
"We remain confident in our plans which will see us reaching near 2019 flying levels for this summer and emerge as one of the winners in the recovery."
Looking ahead the airline forecast its third quarter capacity to be around 90% of Q3 2019 levels.
The budget carrier and rival British Airways were forced to cancel over 500 flights between them over the Easter holiday period, as airlines and airports battled COVID-related staff absences.
Read more: UK airline industry warned over more Easter travel disruption
It comes as Ryanair (RYA.IR) warned it expects to post a loss of at least £300m for the full year later in May as it stages a cautious recovery from the pandemic.
Europe's biggest budget airline said passenger numbers "recovered strongly" but were still more than a third below pre-COVID levels.
Traveller numbers at the Dublin-based firm increased to more than 97 million over the last year, up from 27.2 million in the year to March 2021. Continued COVID measures in some regions mean numbers are still significantly below pre-pandemic levels of 149 million.
