According to The Guardian, EasyJet expects raised profits after a strike by Air France pilots caused an extra £5m of bookings for the UK budget airline.
In a trading latest news, easyJet forecast pre-tax profit of between £575m and £580m for the year to 30 September. It had previously guided investors to expect profit between £535m and £570m.
A last month strike by Air France pilots resulted in passengers turning to easyJet, increasing its revenue by £5m. Passenger numbers rose 7.5% to 6.14 million in September, filling more seats per plane. Fuel costs were £2m lower than expected in the second half of the year.
The airline’s shares rose 6% to £14.52 by early afternoon trading and were the biggest gainers in the FTSE 100 index.
EasyJet’s chief executive, Carolyn McCall, said: “We finished the year strongly. easyJet has continued to execute its strategy, delivering another strong performance in the second half of the year. This has enabled easyJet to deliver record profits for the fourth year in a row.”
EasyJet is considering the company’s biggest dividend payment after it decided to pay out 40% of profits to shareholders, up from 33%.
The news should help conciliate easyJet’s founder, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, whose family owns about 35% of shares and has called for higher dividends instead of the company buying extra planes. He believes easyJet should pay out closer to half its profits to shareholders.
EasyJet has flourished in recent years by moving away from the typical image of budget airlines with services such as allowing passengers allocated seating.
It claims to have an advantage over Ryanair, its main budget rival, because it flies to main airports in cities, attracting more business passengers. At the same time its low-cost business model lets it undercut big carriers such as British Airways.
