Proactive Investors - easyJet (LON:EZJ) on Wednesday reported a narrowed first-quarter loss despite taking a £40 million hit from the Middle East conflict.
The budget airline said its performance has improved year on year, with booking trends giving a positive outlook for the remainder of the financial year.
Underlying trends in the quarter were strong, although headline results were impacted by the conflict in the Middle East.
The conflict had short-term impacts from a pause in flights to Israel and Jordan and a temporary slowdown in flight bookings for the wider industry.
But the airline said demand and bookings have recovered strongly from late November. easyJet holidays had another strong quarter, with customer numbers increasing by 48% compared to the same period last year and profit rising 131% year on year to £30 million.
The group headline loss in the quarter narrowed to £126 million from £133 million before, with passenger growth of 14% and a revenue per seat increase of 3%.
easyJet said it remains on track to deliver disciplined capacity growth of around 9% in financial 2024 with a positive outlook for the summer.
Bookings are strong with seats sold and yield ahead year on year and with second-half revenue per seat well ahead.
easyJet holidays continues to expect >35% customer growth year on year in financial 2024.