UK-based low-cost airline easyJet Plc (ESYJY.PK,EZJ.L) Friday reported growth in passengers and load factor for the month of March, despite the movement of Easter into April from March last year.
The number of passengers, which represents the number of earned seats flown, rose 4.8 percent to 5.11 million from 4.87 million in the prior year.
Since easyJet is a no-refund airline, earned seats for the company include seats that are flown whether or not the passenger turns up. Earned seats also include seats provided for promotional purposes and to staff for business travel.
Monthly load factor, which stands for the number of passengers as a proportion of the number of seats available for passengers, was 91.5 percent, up one percentage point from last year's 90.5 percent.
In February also, easyJet had reported an improvement in passenger numbers as well as load factor.
For the rolling 12 months ended March, passengers improved 3.5 percent to 61.83 million and load factor was up 0.1 percentage point at 89.5 percent.
Last month, the airline had narrowed its expectations for first-half pre-tax loss, and improved its forecast for revenue per seat growth at constant currency as well as cost per seat growth, excluding fuel.
Among peers, Irish low-cost airline Ryanair Holdings Plc. (RYA.L, RYAAY) Thursday said its traffic for March declined 4 percent to 5.2 million customers from last year's 5.4 million customers. But, monthly load factor improved 1 percentage point to 80 percent from last year.
At that time, Ryanair's CEO Robin Kiely said the fall in traffic, as previously guided, was due to the movement of Easter into April.
EZJ.L closed marginally higher on Thursday at 1,791 pence.
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