British low-cost airline easyJet said today that better sales would help it boost 2006 pretax profits by as much as 50 per cent, up from its previous guidance of between 10 and 15 per cent.
EasyJet, Europe's second-largest budget carrier after Ryanair, said it expected passenger revenue per seat to be 3-4 per cent higher for the full year, with growth in ancillary revenue per seat seen around 30 per cent.
The Luton Airport-based company said that for the three months from April to June, revenue-per-seat was 17 per cent higher than in the same period in 2005, helped by the timing of the busy Easter holiday break.
"The improved revenue outlook leads us to increase our profit guidance," easyJet Chief Executive Andy Harrison said in a statement. "Previously, our profit guidance for the full year was growth of 10 per cent to 15 per cent ... We now expect pretax profit growth for the full year to be in the range of 40 per cent to 50 per cent."
EasyJet said it was sub-chartering a limited number of aircraft on a short-term basis to support its summer schedules and this would probably add to second-half costs.
However, it said it expected that unit costs excluding fuel would fall by around 3 per cent in 2006 compared with 2005.
EasyJet said it carried nearly 2.59 million passengers in June, up 15.6 per cent from a year earlier, while its load factor, a measure of how efficiently it is filling seats, was 87.6 per cent against 85.6 per cent in June last year.