easyJet revealed that the Gatwick drone chaos during the Christmas period cost the air carrier £15 million.
In a trading update, easyJet spent £10 million in customer welfare and lost £5 million in revenue as a result of the incident.
The budget airline was forced the airline to cancel 400 flights over the busy Christmas period, affecting 82,000 passengers.
Johan Lundgren, easyJet Chief Executive said:
“easyJet has made a good start to the 2019 financial year with robust customer demand and ancillary sales, driving solid revenue generation. This was underpinned by good operating and on- time performance across the network, with the exception of the disruption caused by the Gatwick closures due to drone sightings.
He added: “There has been be a one-off cost impact from this incident, but underlying cost progress is in line with expectations. I am proud of the way our teams worked around the clock to mitigate the impact of the incident and looked after affected customers.”
“Recognition of the easyJet brand continues to grow. We made good progress on our strategic initiatives; holidays, business, loyalty and data during the quarter.
“For the first half of 2019, booking levels currently remain encouraging despite the lack of certainty around Brexit for our customers. Second half bookings continue to be ahead of last year and our expectations for the full year headline profit before tax are broadly in line with current market expectations.”
Shares in easyJet (LON:EZJ) are currently +6.16% as of 11:21AM (GMT).