easyJet share price: Group posts rise in passenger traffic

easyJet (LON:EZJ) carried more passengers last month, the low-cost airline has said. The news came as blue-chip peer International Consolidated Airlines Group (LON:IAG) also posted a rise in August traffic.

easyJet’s share price, however, has slipped into the red in London this morning, having given up 1.14 percent to 1,144.00p as of 10:43 BST. The stock is underperforming the broader UK market, with the benchmark FTSE 100 index currently standing 0.60 percent lower at 7,328.50 points. The budget carrier’s shares have lost as little as 0.5 percent of their value over the past year, and are up by some 14 percent in the year-to-date.

easyJet revealed in a statement this morning that it had carried 8.22 million passengers last month, marking a 9.4-percent rise as compared with the prior-year period. The airline’s load factor, which measures the number of passengers as a proportion of the seats available, meanwhile inched 1.4 percentage points higher to 96.3 percent. On a 12-month rolling basis, the low-cost carrier’s passengers rose 9.2 percent year-on-year to 79.48 million, while the load factor came in 0.6 percentage points higher at 92.3 percent.

The update comes at a sensitive time for easyJet, which is continuing its search for a successor to Carolyn McCall who is set to take the top job at ITV (LON:ITV) next year. Last month, news emerged that a string of internal candidates were vying to replace McCall at the helm of the budget carrier.

The 23 analysts offering 12-month price targets for easyJet for the Financial Times have a median target of 1,300.00p on the shares, with a high estimate of 1,600.00p and a low estimate of 1,050.00p. As of September 1, the consensus forecast amongst 26 polled investment analysts covering the blue-chip carrier advises investors to hold their position in the company.

As of 11:04 BST, Wednesday, 06 September, easyJet plc share price is 1,147.00p.