Airline PBT expected to be £490-495m
Companies: easyJet plc
Europe's largest budget airline Easyjet gave a trading update today, saying it expected profit-before-tax to be in the range of £490-495m for the year to 30 September. The company delivered record passenger numbers during the year, saw strong PBT despite "major external shock events and disruption", and continued to reduce costs per seat during Q4.
Management said it expects to pay out a full year dividend of 50% of post-tax income.
Easyjet expects its capacity to grow by around 8% for the financial year ending 30 September 2017, with approximately 45% of seats now sold for Q1.
Revenue per seat in the first quarter was down year-on-year, and the company expect figures to be in-line with the reduction seen in the Q4 2016. Cost per seat should increase by 1% for the year to 30 September 2017, as the company continues to invest in operational resilience.
Easyjet says the Brexit-induced forex headwind will continue into 2017, driven by weak sterling versus the dollar affecting the cost of fuel. The impact of weak sterling is expected to cost the company around £90m by 30 September 2017. Despite these issues, the company sees opportunity:
"EasyJet saw continues to see the current market environment as an opportunity to build and strengthen its strategic position for the long term."
CEO Carolyn McCall said EasyJet had been disproportionately affected by political events during the year but had continued to attract record numbers of passengers due to its range of destinations, flight times and value for money:
"We have been disproportionately affected by extraordinary events this year but our excellent network, cost control and revenue initiatives and our strong balance sheet underpin our confidence in the business.
The current environment is tough for all airlines, but history shows that at times like this the strongest airlines become stronger. That is why we will continue to invest for the long term success of the business, establishing even stronger market positions, delivering excellent customer service and establishing new revenue opportunities for the future."
