EasyJet lifts July traffic
Friday, August 7, 2009 @ 1:25 PM
Budget airline EasyJet crammed more passengers onto its planes and lifted traffic in July as demand for cheap flights held up in the recession.
The group flew 4.66m passengers during the month, compared with 4.47m over the same month the previous year. Load factor, a measure of how full the planes were, climbed to 90.3% from 89.3%.
The difference between how budget and standard airlines are performing in the current climate was underlined yesterday when BA and EasyJet’s no-frills rival Ryanair also posted July traffic figures.
Ryanair, which saw its traffic rise to a monthly record of 6.7m passengers in July, said its continued growth shows that passengers are switching from high fair and fuel surcharging carriers to its low cost offering. The firms load factor was flat at 89%.
BA’s passenger numbers fell 1.2% to 3.2m but its load factor increased 3.1 points versus last year to 84.6%. Passenger capacity, measured in Available Seat Kilometres, was 2.7% below July 2008.
Source: Sharecast