Budget airline EasyJet said today that its passenger numbers grew almost 40 per cent last month, though concern it had too many empty seats as it increased capacity sent its shares lower.
The load factor, or the proportion of occupied available seats in its planes, dipped from December 2001, when budget airlines cut prices to tempt people back into the skies after the September 11th attacks on US cities.
Shares in easyJet were down 3.5 per cent at 275p today, off a low of 257 pence, as investors worried about the risks of its expansion strategy, increased capacity putting pressure on average fare yields and higher oil prices, a big cost for airlines.
EasyJet said it carried 1.433 million passengers in December, up 38.6 per cent on December 2001 based on combined figures with Go. Its load factor was 77 per cent, down from 79.9 per cent.
Ryanair carried 1.31 million passengers in December, up 64 per cent on December 2001, and had a load factor of 85 per cent, up from 77 per cent in December 2001. Ryanair had a massive cheap ticket promotion in November and December. BA carried 1.962 million passengers within Europe in December, up 6.4 per cent on December 2001, out of a total of 2.878 million passengers, and had a load factor of 61.7 per cent.
A number of factors such as companies cutting their travel budgets due to economic uncertainty, a possible war with Iraq and weaker demand for long distance travel since the 2001 attacks on the United States have hit full-service carriers, which rely heavily on sales of front-of-cabin tickets for their profits.