EasyJet today delivered a “solid” set of annual financial results, with pre-tax profits up by £100 million to £154 million.
The budget airline, which signed a three-year deal with lowcosttravelgroup earlier this month to create the EasyJet Holidays brand, estimated that the total cost of the Icelandic volcanic ash disruption will eventually come out at around £57 million.
There was also a “significant impact” to the results for the year to September 30 from a £97.9 million increase in disruption costs over the previous year, including £27.3 million in volcano-related costs
There was also £20.8 million in snow-related costs and £49.8 million as a result of air traffic control strike action and operational difficulties over the summer.
Passenger numbers were up by almost 8% to 48.8 million over the previous 12 months.
Total revenue rose by 11.5% to £2,973 million, with ancillary revenue up by 10.7% or 43p per seat to £10.20.
But the airline suffered from a drop in hotel and car hire revenues.
“This performance is disappointing and we are reviewing this area to ensure that we have the correct product offerings to underpin our growth plans going forward, the airline said.
The airline said that a dividend would be paid at the end of this financial year.
The airline revealed that the fleet would increase by 24 aircraft to 220 by September 2013.
Chief executive Carolyn McCall, pictured above, said: “EasyJet’s solid financial performance in a tough environment demonstrates that the business model is strong.”
The carrier said it saw “clear opportunities” to continue to take market share as charter traffic continues to decline, as weaker short haul carriers retrench or fail and new infrastructure capacity comes on stream.
“Low cost carrier penetration across Europe is expected to increase as several major markers including France, Switzerland, Italy, Netherlands and Portugal see the penetration of low cost carrier traffic increase to around 50% in line with that seen in the UK and Spain,” the company said.