REG - easyJet PLC - Trading Update for the quarter ended 30 June 2024

easyJetAnnouncement

24/07/2024 07:00

For best results when printing this announcement, please click on link below:
http://newsfile.refinitiv.com/getnewsfile/v1/story?guid=urn:newsml:reuters.com:20240724:nRSX5428Xa&default-theme=true

RNS Number : 5428X  easyJet PLC  24 July 2024

24 July 2024

easyJet plc

('easyJet')

 

easyJet Trading Update for the quarter ended 30 June 2024

 

easyJet delivers a 16% YoY profit improvement as we progress towards our
medium term targets

 

·    Q3 headline profit before tax £236 million, +£33 million YoY

o  Passenger growth +8% YoY

o  RPS +1% YoY, in line with guidance

o  easyJet holidays delivers £73 million PBT (Q3'23 £49 million)

o  Headline CPS ex fuel increased 1% YoY, Fuel CPS reduced 1% YoY

§ Headline CASK ex fuel flat YoY, total CASK reduced 1% YoY

·    Positive outlook for FY24

o  Expect FY24 capacity of c.100m seats

o  Q4'24 RPS is expected to continue the trend of Q3'24

o  easyJet holidays is now expected to deliver >£180m PBT (>48% profit
growth YoY)

o  Continue to expect H2 headline CPS ex fuel up low single digits YoY

o  H2 fuel CPS expected to be flat YoY

 

Summary

easyJet's third quarter profit improved by £33 million year-on-year as demand
for easyJet's primary airport network continues to grow. Airline passenger
numbers increased by 8% and RPS increased by 1% year-on-year, with headline
CPS ex fuel increasing by 1%. However the 1% increase in average sector length
meant that headline CASK ex fuel was flat year-on-year. easyJet holidays
continues to perform strongly, growing PBT by 49% to £73 million with
passenger growth of 33%.

As at 30 June 2024, our net cash position was £456 million (£146 million as
at 31 March 2024). All 16 aircraft, as expected, have been taken into
ownership and delivered with the final one received in July.

Bookings for Q4 continue to build, with 69% now sold, +1 ppt year-on-year with
7% more capacity on sale. This means easyJet has currently sold 1.5 million
more seats for peak summer compared to the same point in time last year with
total yield broadly flat year on year.

Looking to Q1'25, on sale capacity is up c.5% with 20% of the program
currently sold, +2 ppts year-on-year.

Johan Lundgren, CEO of easyJet, said:

"Our strong performance in the quarter has been driven by more customers
choosing easyJet for our unrivalled network of destinations and value for
money. This result was achieved despite Easter falling into March this year,
demonstrating the continued importance of travel and this means we remain on
track to deliver another record-breaking summer, taking us a step closer to
our medium term targets."

 Revenue, Cost and Liquidity

Revenue increased by 11% to £2,631 million predominantly due to an increase
in passengers of 8%, growth in ancillary revenue per seat and the continued
growth of easyJet holidays.

Airline headline cost per seat ex fuel in the quarter increased 1% as
disruption costs were much improved year-on-year (a 33% reduction in events)
offset by the 1% increase in average sector length as we increased our
proportion of longer leisure routes. easyJet continues to expect its H2'24 CPS
ex fuel to increase by low single digits although Q4 is expected to increase
slightly more than Q3. This is due to the challenging European ATC environment
and a one off benefit following the successful completion of airport
negotiations in the prior year.

Financing costs benefitted from a decrease in gross debt and a higher interest
rate on floating-rate cash deposits. Foreign exchange movements over the
period resulted in a non-operational, non-cash FX gain of £2 million from
balance sheet revaluations.

                                                                        Q3'24    Q3'23    Variance

                                                                                          Favourable / (Adverse)
 Passenger revenue (£'m)                                                1,602    1,501    7%
 Airline ancillary revenue (£'m)                                        693      622      11%
 Holidays revenue(3) (£'m)                                              336      237      42%
 Group revenue (£'m)                                                    2,631    2,360    11%
 Fuel costs (£'m)                                                       (625)    (585)    (7)%
 Airline headline EBITDAR costs ex fuel (£'m)                           (1,315)  (1,210)  (9)%
 Holidays EBITDAR costs(3) (£'m)                                        (268)    (193)    (39)%
 Group headline EBITDAR costs (£'m)                                     (2,208)  (1,988)  (11)%
 Group headline EBITDAR (£'m)                                           423      372      14%
 Airline depreciation & amortisation (£'m)                              (187)    (170)    (10)%
 Holidays depreciation & amortisation (£'m)                             (2)      (1)      (100)%
 Group headline EBIT (£'m)                                              234      201      16%
 Airline financing costs excluding balance sheet revaluations (£'m)     (7)      (14)     50%
 Holidays financing income excluding balance sheet revaluations (£'m)   7        6        17%
 Balance sheet revaluations (£'m)                                       2        10       (80)%
 Group headline PBT (£'m)                                               236      203      16%

 Airline passenger revenue per seat (£)                                 56.95    57.33    (1%)
 Airline ancillary revenue per seat (£)                                 24.66    23.75    4%
 Total airline revenue per seat (£)                                     81.61    81.08    1%
 Total airline RASK (p)                                                 6.54     6.58     (1%)

 Airline headline cost per seat ex fuel (£)                             (53.59)  (52.86)  (1)%
 Airline headline CASK ex fuel (p)                                      (4.29)   (4.29)   0%
 Airline fuel cost per seat (£)                                         (22.23)  (22.35)  1%
 Airline headline total cost per seat (£)                               (75.82)  (75.21)  (1)%

 Sector length (km)                                                     1,248    1,233    1%

 Cash and money market deposits (£'bn)                                  3.7      3.1      19%
 Net cash/(debt) (£'m)                                                  456      304      50%

 

Capacity

During Q3 easyJet flew 28.1 million seats, a 7% increase on the same period
last year when easyJet flew 26.2 million seats. Load factor was 90% (Q3 FY23:
90%) with load factor increasing to 92% in June.

Passenger(1) numbers in the quarter increased to 25.3 million (Q3 FY23: 23.5
million).

                            April   May     June    Q3       Q3

                            2024    2024    2024    FY24     FY23
 Number of flights          49,232  54,071  53,184  156,487  146,816
 Peak operating aircraft    297     318     330     330      310

 Passengers (1) (thousand)  7,849   8,717   8,752   25,318   23,454

 Seats flown (thousand)     8,843   9,724   9,555   28,122   26,177

 Load factor (2)            88.8%   89.7%   91.6%   90.0%    89.6%

Fuel & FX Hedging

 Jet Fuel                         H1'25  H2'25    USD                                 H1'25  H2'25
 Hedged position                  65%    31%      Hedged position                     65%    34%
 Average hedged rate ($/MT)       830    813      Average hedged rate (USD/GBP)       1.26   1.27
 Current spot ($/MT) at 23.07.24  c. 810          Current spot (USD/GBP) at 23.07.24  c.1.29

easyJet fuel hedging is via a mix of swaps and options

External Audit Tender Process

The Audit Committee has recently undertaken a competitive audit tender, with
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) unable to continue beyond 2025 for reasons of
tenure. The Board have selected Deloitte LLP to succeed PwC as auditor. PwC
are expected to complete the audit for the year ending 30 September
2025 before Deloitte LLP's appointment is put to the 2026 AGM. Further
details will be set out in the 2024 Annual Report.

For further details please contact easyJet plc:

Institutional investors and analysts:

Adrian Talbot                     Investor
Relations                           +44 (0) 7971 592
373

 

Media:

Anna Knowles                   Corporate Communications
       +44 (0) 7985 873 313

Olivia Peters                     Teneo
 
              +44 (0) 20 7353 4200

Harry Cameron               Teneo
 
              +44 (0) 20 7353 4200

A copy of this Trading Statement is available at
http://corporate.easyjet.com/investors
(http://corporate.easyjet.com/investors)

 

1) Represents the number of earned seats flown. Earned seats include seats
which are flown whether or not the passenger turns up, as easyJet is a no
refund airline and once a flight has departed, a no-show customer is generally
not entitled to change flights or seek a refund. Earned seats also include
seats provided for promotional purposes and to staff for business travel.

2) Represents the number of passengers as a proportion of the number of seats
available for passengers. No weighting of the load factor is carried out to
recognise the effect of varying flight (or "sector") lengths.

3) Holidays numbers include elimination of intercompany airline transactions

 

A glossary of acronyms can be found within the FY23 Annual Report on Page 197,
available on easyJet's corporate website.

 

This announcement may contain statements which constitute 'forward-looking
statements'. Although easyJet believes that the expectations reflected in
these forward-looking statements are reasonable, it can give no assurance that
these expectations will prove to have been correct. Because these statements
involve risks and uncertainties, actual results may differ materially from
those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements.

This information is provided by RNS, the news service of the London Stock Exchange. RNS is approved by the Financial Conduct Authority to act as a Primary Information Provider in the United Kingdom. Terms and conditions relating to the use and distribution of this information may apply. For further information, please contact
rns@lseg.com (mailto:rns@lseg.com)
 or visit
www.rns.com (http://www.rns.com/)
.

RNS may use your IP address to confirm compliance with the terms and conditions, to analyse how you engage with the information contained in this communication, and to share such analysis on an anonymised basis with others as part of our commercial services. For further information about how RNS and the London Stock Exchange use the personal data you provide us, please see our
Privacy Policy (https://www.lseg.com/privacy-and-cookie-policy)
.   END  TSTRJMRTMTITBBI