Terror attacks fail to dent EasyJet passenger growth

While British Airways has seen a collapse in demand, the contrast with no-frills carriers was highlighted yesterday with the news from easyJet that passenger numbers in October surged by a third.

Stelios Haji-Ioannou's low-cost operator carried 716,017 passengers last month, up from 538,508 in October 2000. It meant that 7.3 million passengers flew on the airline for the year to the end of October. Earlier this week, BA revealed a 25 per cent drop in October traffic.

EasyJet, based in Luton, and its Irish peer, Ryanair, have said that they are positioned to benefit from difficulties experienced by the big national carriers in the face of economic slowdown and terrorist attacks. EasyJet has benefited from piling on capacity over the last year.

Although yesterday's easyJet figures revealed that the load factor – the number of passengers as a proportion of seats available – slipped to 82.2 per cent last month, from 85.4 per cent in October 2000, the numbers were well received. EasyJet shares closed up 5.5 per cent, at 422p. At the end of last month the company reported annual profits had soared by 82 per cent and it has subsequently raised £93m to finance aggressive expansion plans.

The no-frills players, which increasingly cater to cost-conscious business travellers, have slashed fares to keep people flying after September's horrifying hijackings. But a report from American Express published yesterday showed that full-service airlines have gone the other way.

Traditional airlines did cut first and business class fares in the first half of this year but that trend has been reversed since 11 September. American Express, which has a large corporate travel department, said that the UK recorded the strongest fare growth in this period. UK first-class fares to North America climbed 5.2 per cent, while business class fares jumped 6 per cent.

"As demand for air travel has fallen, airlines have been forced to announce sweeping cuts in capacity and the elimination of many services. The consequence of which is quite sharp price hikes on certain key routes," the study said.