EasyJet has demanded action to prevent further airport snow chaos as the airline revealed that severe weather cost it £18 million in the last quarter of 2010.
This was in addition to a £6 million hit as a result of air traffic control strike action in the period. This led to lost contribution of £7 million. The budget airline said it was working to recover a “significant proportion” of this through additional costs savings and revenue opportunities.
Total revenue in the three months to December 31 was up by 7.5% to £654 million. The number of passengers carried was up 8.8% year on year to 11.9 million, with almost 60% originating from outside the UK.
The number of seats flown grew by 7.7% to 13.8 million but total revenue per seat was flat at £47.48. “At constant currency revenue per seat grew by 0.3% as growth in underlying yields more than offset some weakness on ancillary revenues,” the airline said.
Chief executive Carolyn McCall said: “Against a difficult economic backdrop aggravated by severe weather and ATC strike action, EasyJet was able to deliver a solid trading performance and grow total revenue by 7.5% to £654 million whilst improving its position in mainland Europe.
“EasyJet will always support its passengers when external events impact their journey but we call on governments to provide sensible legislation for airport regulation and air traffic control.
“The severe snow disruption of the past two years also highlights the need for airports to invest in the appropriate infrastructure to keep passengers moving.”
EasyJet founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou and its biggest shareholder resumed his criticism of the airline’s growth strategy in the light of the results announcement.
Commentators pointed specifically to the reduced revenues from ancillaries as a matter of particular concern for EasyJet which, like its lowcost rivals, depends to an ever greater extent on non-core revenue.
Haji-Ioannou said the airline was too leisure traveller dependent and therefore its business was too seasonal. EasyJet recently announced the introduction of flexible fares in a bid to woo more corporate travellers.