EasyJet announced its final results on Tuesday morning for the year ending 30 September 2018. Revealing a 43% increase in proposed dividend, the low-cost airline has had a successful year.
Annual profit grew in-line with expectations. Indeed, reported profit before tax increased to £445 million, up from the £385 million figure in 2017. This was supported by a record number of passengers flying with the airline.
The results show that 88.5 million passengers flew with easyJet this year.
This is up by 10.2% from 2017, with a record load factor of 92.9%.
From January the airline had been experiencing strong revenue and passenger growth, with shares rising 5%.
Moreover, the results also reported a proposed dividend of 58.6p. In 2017 the proposed dividened was at 40.9p.
Additionally, with the chaos flyers have experienced with easyJet’s rivals, Ryanair, it is no wonder passenger intake grew in this period. Likewise, in September, EasyJet expected strong profits from the Ryanair strikes.
Headline cost per seat excluding fuel was up by 5.3% to £43.43.
This is as a result of the airline’s expansion into Tegel, higher levels of disruption and crew cost inflation.
Commenting on the results, easyJet Chief Executive, Johan Lundgren said:
” easyJet has delivered a great performance during the year, growing headline profit before tax by 41 per cent, once again flying a record number of passengers at our highest ever annual load factor. The integration of new operations at Tegel has also progressed well and our brand consideration in Berlin has grown strongly. Our financial success and increasing customer loyalty demonstrate the resilience of our operations, the underlying strength of our business and our unrivalled customer experience.
“Our strategy continues to ensure we are well positioned for the future. We have made considerable progress on our new initiatives in holidays, business and loyalty, which will enable us to grow profitably. While disruption continues to be a major challenge for the industry, we are investing in resilience to help to mitigate the impact on our customers.
“Forward bookings are solid, with 50% of seats sold in the first half, in line with the prior year. We are confident in our positioning for the future and are focused on driving future returns, positive free cash flow over the longer term and maximising our headline profit per seat as we continue to deliver value for our customers and shareholders.”
At 08:45 GMT, shares in easyJet plc (LON:EZJ) were trading at -2.98%.
