EasyJet soars above turbulence with rising passenger numbers
Budget airline EasyJet has reported a strong rise in passenger numbers of 7.7 per cent to 6.4m for the month of July and a rise of 5.9 per cent to 63.8m for the 12 months ending July.
The figures will be welcome news to the company which recently forecast annual profits for the year to 30 September would be between £545m to £570m, 14 to 19 per cent higher than last year, but slightly below a range of analysts’ forecasts.
The budget airline saw its third quarter revenues to 30 June increase by 8.6 per cent to hit £1.2bn, as passenger numbers increased 9.4 per cent to 17.9m in total. There was also a rise in capacity of 16 per cent at Gatwick after EasyJet acquired slots from Flybe.
EasyJet has in recent months announced a series of innovative measures such the development new drone technology that can be used to inspect its fleet of planes.
In May, the airline said it is working with the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, CopterCraft and Measurement Solutions to modify an unmanned drone for trials within the next few months.
As part of its technology push, EasyJet is also trying to enforce a “paperless plane” policy, with pilots using tablets instead of printed log books – a decluttering measure that EasyJet said will save about $500,000 (£278,000) a year in fuel costs.
Alongside the drone plans, EasyJet is experimenting with augmented reality glasses and new diagnostics programmes to give engineers on the ground a better idea about what is going on with planes in real time during the flights.