EasyJet - Sales up but so are losses.

[Flypuppy]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Easyjet, the UK-based low cost airline group, has reported a 43% rise in first-half sales to £142.8m.
But while passenger numbers are grow strongly, so do the airline's losses. Easyjet reported a loss after tax and before one-off items of £7m for the six months ended 31 March - compared with a £2.3m loss in the same period the previous year.

"We are pleased to report an encouraging performance marginally ahead of our expectations with revenue up 43%, passengers up 31% and 87% of customers now booking over the internet," said chief executive Ray Webster.

In the past 12 months, 6.5 million people flew with Easyjet, he said.

Easyjet said this was because of seasonal variations in its business.

It said it made more money in summer, when holiday travel increases, whereas bad weather in December disrupted operations.

Mr Webster said Easyjet had seen "firm" trading in the first weeks of the second half and remained confident of achieving performance targets for the full year.

The airline operates on 30 routes from 17 airports around Europe.

The results were Easyjet's first since flotation on the stock market last November.

Easyjet shares closed at 410.5 pence on Tuesday, having traded in a range of 347.5-469p this year. </font>
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1320000/1320642.stm

[tailscrape]

Yes, but these were the figures everyone expected.

[twistedenginestarter]

EasyJet's Net Loss Widens in First Half; Sales, Traffic Grow
By Lois Jones


London, May 9 (Bloomberg) -- EasyJet Plc said its first-half net loss widened, even as Europe's No. 2 low-cost carrier carried more passengers and sold more tickets over its Web site.

The airline posted a net loss for the six months ended March 31 of 7 million pounds ($10 million) compared with a loss of 2.3 million pounds in the year-earlier period, EasyJet said in a statement released on the Regulatory News Service. Sales rose 43 percent to 143 million, it said.

EasyJet's passenger count rose 31 percent to 3.2 million passengers in the first half from 2.4 million in the first six months of fiscal 2000 as the proportion of seats sold through the airline's Web site rose to 86.5 percent from 59.6 percent.

"Between October and December 2000, EasyJet took delivery of the first three of its new Boeing 737-200s,'' the statement said. "Four more will arrive in the second half, with a further 25 following by mid-2004.''

Luton, England-based EasyJet flies to bigger, more expensive airports such as Amsterdam and Nice, France, than Dublin-based rival, Ryanair Holdings Plc, which carries passengers to airports that can be 60 miles (97 kilometers) from city centers. :) EasyJet now serves 30 routes from 17 airports.

EasyJet, founded five years ago by Greek billionaire Stelios Haji-Ioannou, raised 195 million pounds in an initial public share offer in November. The shares fell 4.5 pence, or 1 percent, to 410.5p yesterday.

[What_does_this_button_do?]

"Sales rose 43 percent"

According to the Airline program so did the number of people wanting a refund due to a missed plane due to the M1/Train problems.

[Desk Driver]

"Between October and December 2000, EasyJet took delivery of the first three of its new Boeing 737-200s,''

No wonder they're losing money, getting ripped off like that! They were expecting 737-700's

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You fly em we'll fill em!

[sky unlimited]

7m of losses isn't big in the airline industry (look at some major losses in the US!). I think EZY's Stelios is capable enough in managing this financial obstacle.

And, by the way, I didn't see any 737-200....

[BOTFOJ]

...when you consider that British World just announced an loss of £10M in their annual statement its no so bad

[LTN man]

Just add £2 to the fares of the 6.5 million passengers will turn the loss into a profit

[Wig Wag]

Meanwhile Go is becoming profitable . . .

[speke2me]

I think the trend is for ezy to be profitable in the summer season over compensating for losses in the winter. The fares are much more than 2pounds more in the summer per pax - given the several days losses of business at LTN because of snow and lack of availability of snow clearing equipment I reckon they will not be too disappointed particularly if share prices stay up. Meanwhile its 85% plus load factors at LPL on all their routes.

[Son Of Piltdown]

The following is from the Motley Fool:

http://www.fool.co.uk/news/comment/2001/c010509b.htm?ref=boardspost

Quote from the last para:

&gt;&gt;Results from EasyJet show that there is little room for error in operating an airline business. This is particularly true of no-frills operations where margins are unable to absorb adequately the impact of external factors. The risks are likely to be magnified when EasyJet doubles the size of its fleet in three years' time.&lt;&lt;

[Mad Mitch]

$7m loss is nothing, as an ex VEX employer compare these figures with the idiots running VEX with their $50m loss last year after the $30m loss the year before. EZY are increasing the fleet while VEX are cutting theres. EZY sales are increasing year on year, VEX decreasing. Know who I'd sooner be working for a bit of job security