No-frills carrier easyJet said on Friday that its first-half pre-tax losses halved but it remains in the red due to adverse impact of currency movements and changes in fuel prices.
The British low-cost airline said in a trading update that pre-tax losses would stand at between £60 million and 65 million ($91-99 million, 71-77 million euros) for the six months to March 31, compared with £112 million in the same period of its previous fiscal year.
The new estimate compared with the group’s prior guidance for a first-half loss of between £50 million and £75 million.
“It is expected that the weakening of sterling against the euro, US dollar and Swiss franc will have had a £30 million to £35 million adverse impact in the first half of this financial year, with an additional £5.0 million adverse impact from changes in the fuel price,” it said in the statement.
Chief executive Carolyn McCall added however that the carrier reduced its losses due to a variety of other factors.
“First half losses have been halved year on year through our disciplined approach to capacity deployment and a focus on cost management over winter,” said McCall in the statement.
“We have also benefited from rival airlines taking winter capacity out of the market, the earlier timing of Easter compared to last year and the poor weather across the UK and northern Europe which stimulated strong bookings in the last few weeks of the first half of the financial year.”
In reaction to the news, the group’s share price slumped 3.92 percent to 1,054 pence in Friday morning deals on the FTSE 100 index of leading companies, which was 0.40 percent lower at 6,318.54 points.
The group, which will publish its half-year results on May 15, was promoted to the FTSE 100 index last month.
easyJet airline halves interim losses
