easyJet share price takes off as airline posts ‘good start’ to year

Shares in easyJet (LON:EZJ) have jumped in London this morning as the low-cost airline updated investors on its first-quarter performance posting a ‘good start’ to the year. The company, however, also unveiled extra costs related to last month’s drone disruption at London’s Gatwick airport.

As of 08:55 GMT, easyJet’s share price had added 2.24 percent to 1,187.50p. The stock is outperforming the broader UK market, with the benchmark FTSE 100 index having fallen into the red in early morning trade and currently standing 0.35 percent lower at 6,946.27 points.

easyJet posts ‘good start’ to year

easyJet announced in a statement this morning that its total revenue in the first quarter of its financial year had increased by 13.7 percent to £1.3 billion, while passenger revenue had climbed 12.2 percent to £1.03 billion. Passenger numbers meanwhile rose 15.1 percent to 21.6 million, driven by increase in capacity. The low-cost carrier, however, revealed that the drone disruption at Gatwick had cost it about £15 million, including £10 million in customer welfare costs and further £5 million in lost revenues due to flight cancellations.

“easyJet has made a good start to the 2019 financial year,” the group’s chief executive Johan Lundgren said in the statement, adding that for the first half of the 2019 financial year, “booking levels currently remain encouraging despite the lack of certainty around Brexit for our customers,” while second-half bookings continued to be ahead of last year.

Analysts weigh in on results

Bloomberg quoted Bernstein analyst Daniel Roeska as saying in a note that easyJet had worked to hold fares steady at the expense of occupancy levels, and with some success, but will need a ‘very strong’ second-half performance to reach the consensus figure.

The results come after JPMorgan lowered its rating on easyJet last week.

As of 09:15 GMT, Tuesday, 22 January, easyJet plc share price is 1,212.00p.