Skift Take

EasyJet looks to lure the lucrative frequent flyer market by offering a more dependable flight experience via assigned seating, fast-track security, and increased flight volumes.

EasyJet Plc, Europe’s second-largest discount carrier, said it will deliver improved returns and profitability in the full year after a drive to secure more business travelers helped pare first-half losses.

Revenue per seat for the second half to Sept. 30 is likely to gain 4 percent, Luton, England-based EasyJet said today. The pretax loss for the six months ended March 31 was 61 million pounds ($93 million), versus 112 million pounds a year earlier.

EasyJet is ramping up efforts to draw corporate passengers using allocated seating, flexible tickets and higher frequencies on routes linking business centers. The carrier lured 10 million such travelers in 2012 and plans to begin fast-tracking flexi- fare customers through security at 27 airports starting this month. The first-half result was lifted by holiday traffic to beach destinations in Spain and skiing hubs such as Geneva.

“Business travelers want frequent, punctual flights to leading airports,” Chief Executive Officer Carolyn McCall said in a statement. “We want to give them other services that they truly value and which we can deliver without changing our simple efficient operations.”

Higher Occupancy

Shares of EasyJet rose as much as 3.3 percent and traded 3.1 percent higher at 1,165 pence as of 8:19 a.m. in London. The stock has gained 52 percent this year following a 79 percent advance in 2012 that helped propel it into the benchmark FTSE 100 Index, valuing the company at 4.62 billion pounds.

EasyJet boosted its load factor, a measure of occupancy levels, to 88.6 percent in the first half even as it increased capacity 3.3 percent to 30 million seats. About 50 percent of available berths have already been sold for the summer period.

McCall has sought to boost frequencies on routes attractive to business clients while adding services from London to Moscow and between Milan and Rome Fiumicino airport. Higher airport charges, especially in Spain and Italy, will drive up cost per seat by about 4 percent in the second half, the carrier said.

EasyJet, which operates 211 Airbus SAS A320s and A319s, said it’s in the final stages of evaluating new jets needed to grow the fleet beyond 2017, while also considering options for the 2015-2017 “bridging period.” McCall said in March she’s considering the re-engined A320neo and Boeing Co. 737 Max.

Ryanair Holdings Plc, Europe’s No. 1 discount carrier, last month ordered 175 Boeing 737-800s and said it’s mulling a follow-on deal to take the fleet above 500 jets.

“Ryanair has demonstrated operators can negotiate successfully without committing to large future growth,” Peter Hyde, an analyst at Liberum Capital in London, said in a note to investors, adding that an EasyJet plane order is likely to confirm growth of about 5 percent over the medium term.

EasyJet founder and No. 1 shareholder Stelios Haji-Ioannou has been a vocal opponent of fleet expansion.

Editor: Chris Jasper and Benedikt Kammel.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kari Lundgren in London at [email protected]. To contact the editor responsible for this story: Benedikt Kammel at [email protected].

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Photo credit: The EasyJet boarding gate at Geneva International Airport. UggBoy / Flickr

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