EasyJet lost £3.5 million per day through spring 2021

One out of three seats was empty between April and June

Cloudy skies: an easyJet Airbus A320 flying over Germany (Simon Calder)

Britain’s biggest budget airline lost £3.5m per day between April and June 2021, with passenger numbers way below pre-pandemic levels.

But in its trading update for the third quarter of its financial year, easyJet said the £318m headline loss before tax – representing £40 per second – was in line with expectations.

The carrier says it has “maintained its disciplined approach to capacity and cash management”. Net debt is broadly flat at around £2bn.

Passenger numbers were below 3 million, with only 66 per cent of seats filled – compared with around 93 per cent before the pandemic.

Even in its busiest month of June, capacity was only one-sixth of 2019 levels.

Looking ahead to the peak summer months of July, August and September, easyJet says it will fly up to 60 per cent of pre-pandemic traffic.

Johan Lundgren, chief executive of easyJet, said: “We have used our existing strengths like our network with renewed purpose – pivoting capacity to Europe where we saw the strongest demand.”

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that two-thirds of revenue was from continental Europe, compared with 50 per cent before the pandemic.

“The UK has had some of the toughest travel restrictions,” he said.

“We know people want to fly, we know they want to travel. It’s all about the unwinding of restrictions.”