EasyJet soars as passengers flock back to no-frills flying

Easyjet shares soared yesterday after the no-frills airline reported a surge in passenger numbers for January and a marked improvement in the number of seats filled on each flight. The Luton-based low cost carrier also strengthened its management team by appointing as chief operating officer one of the executives who came on board following the takeover of Go.

Shares in easyJet rose 10 per cent to close 19.75p higher at 225p after the airline said that traffic levels last month rose by 44 per cent, lifting the number of passengers carried to just under 1.5 million.

More significantly, load factors – the number of seats sold on each flight – recovered strongly after dipping unexpectedly in December. EasyJet said that its aircraft flew 77.5 per cent full in January compared with 76 per cent a year earlier. In December, load factors fell by three percentage points, prompting a sharp fall in easyJet shares as analysts questioned whether the takeover of Go was paying off after all. Ray Webster, easyJet's chief executive attributed the improvement in load factors to the fact that January was the first month since easyJet's pricing system was fully introduced across the former Go route network.

The 1.49 million passengers carried by easyJet in January compares with 1.25 million who flew Ryanair and the 1.85 million flown by British Airways.

The newly created position of chief operating officer on easyJet's management board is being filled by Ed Winter, Go's former operations director who helped oversee the integration of Go into easyJet following last year's £378m takeover. Of the seven members on the management board, three are former Go executives. The other two are David Magliano, director of sales and marketing, and Dominic Paul, customer services director.

BA reports third-quarter results on Monday and although it will post a big reduction in losses compared with the same period a year earlier when the industry was hit by the 11 September terrorist attacks, analysts will be watching to see how much yields have deteriorated.