British airline EasyJet said travel was back and it would fly 70% of its pre-pandemic capacity in the Oct-Dec period, higher than it planned last month after COVID-19 restrictions drove losses above 1 billion pound loss in 2021.
Demand for holidays to winter sun destinations such as Egypt, Turkey and the Canary Islands showed customer appetite had returned, said easyJet, adding that business travellers were also booking flights.
“We are encouraged to see positive booking momentum into full-year 2022 which has led us to increase our capacity plans,”easyJet chief executive Johan Lundgren said on Tuesday.
That outlook represents a turnaround from last year where pandemic uncertainty and travel bans will have pushed easyJet to an expected loss of between 1.135 billion pounds ($1.54billion)and 1.175 billion pounds for the 12 months ended Sept, it said.
Consensus sits at the top of that range, with a forecast for a loss of 1.175 billion pounds. The results will be on Nov.30.
Seeking to boost its recovery from the pandemic, easyJet in September launched a surprise 1.2 billion pound rights issue and also revealed it had rejected an “opportunistic” bid from a suitor, believed to be Wizz Air. ($1 = 0.7349 pounds)
