EasyJet (LON:EZJ) delivered its full year results in line with expectations on Tuesday, though headline profit before tax plunged compared to the year prior.
Shares in the low cost airline were up during Tuesday morning trading.
The airline posted its results “against the background of a difficult year”.
EasyJet revealed that headline profit before tax declined 26% to £427 million.
The airline emphasised, however, that this figure does lie towards the top end of its £420-430 million guidance range.
For the year ending 30 September, passenger numbers grew by 8.6% to 96.1 million.
Total revenue was up by 8.3% amounting to £6.4 billion, compared to the £5.9 billion figure recorded the year prior.
EasyJet said that total revenue per seat declined by 1.8% to £60.81, driven by weak consumer confidence.
However, the low-cost airline said that this was offset by the positive impact from strikes at British Airways (LON:IAG) and Ryanair (LON:RYA).
“More customers than ever are coming to easyJet as their airline of choice, with a record 96.1 million customers flying with us this year,” Johan Lundgren, EasyJet Chief Executive, commented on the results.
“We have also invested in tackling disruption for our customers through our Operational Resilience programme, which has reduced cancellations by 46% and lowered delays of 3 hours or more by 24% year on year,” EasyJet’s Chief Executive continued.
The company also revealed in its full year results that it will be launching a package holidays business, after having identified a “significant opportunity” in this area.
Thomas Cook collapsed just a few months ago.
Johan Lundgren said: “I am really thrilled that with the launch, before Christmas, of our brand new easyJet Holidays business we are bringing flexibility and excellent value to the holiday market. We are now able to offer our customers more than 100 amazing beach and city holiday destinations, pairing Europe’s best short-haul flight network with more than 5,000 of Europe’s best hotels. We believe there is a gap in the market for a modern, relevant and flexible business for today’s consumer.”
Johan Lundgren claimed that EasyJet will be “the world’s first major airline to operate net-zero carbon flights across our whole network”.
“We are doing this by offsetting the carbon emissions from the fuel used for all of our flights,” the Chief Executive explained.
Shares in EasyJet plc (LON:EZJ) were up on Tuesday trading at +4.07% as of 08:59 GMT.