EasyJet Counting on Beach Holiday Boom to Get Close to 2019 Levels This Summer

Britain’s easyJet said the easing of travel restrictions had spurred demand for summer beach destinations such as Greece, Turkey and Spain, giving the airline cause for optimism after the shadow of Omicron lifts.

Its CEO Johan Lundgren said bookings jumped in Britain when restrictions were reduced earlier this month and were boosted again when the government said testing requirements would end in February.

He said easyJet had seen similar trends across Europe, notably in France and Switzerland.

“We see a strong summer ahead, with pent-up demand that will see easyJet returning to near 2019 levels of capacity with UK beach and leisure routes performing particularly well,” he said.

The airline flew 64 percent of pre-pandemic capacity in its first quarter to end-December, but its 77 percent load factor missed its forecast of over 80 percent after the new variant of Covid-19 dented demand in December.

Omicron would continue to have a short-term impact, it said, although it will ramp up capacity from around 50 percent of pre-pandemic levels in January to 67 percent for the second quarter.

In November, before the impact of Omicron was clear, easyJet had forecast capacity of around 70 percent for the quarter.

Shares in easyJet, which have risen 6 percent in the last 12 months, were up 1 percent in early trading on Thursday.

Lundgren, who bolstered easyJet’s balance sheet with a $1.61 billion pound rights issue in September, said unlike other airlines that were retrenching, easyJet was adding capacity.

He said 1.1 million extra seats were on sale from its largest airport, London Gatwick, while it had launched 16 new routes from the UK and had added capacity to 30 destinations.

Total group revenue for easyJet’s first quarter to end-December increased to $1.1 billion against $221 million a year ago, while its headline loss before tax for the quarter nearly halved to $286 million.

(Editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Alexander Smith)

This article was written by Paul Sandle from Reuters and was legally licensed through the Industry Dive Content Marketplace. Please direct all licensing questions to [email protected].