EasyJet (LON:EZJ) shares rose on Tuesday after the airline reported a “strong” performance during the first quarter.
Shares in easyJet (LON:EZJ) were trading almost 4% higher during Tuesday morning trading.
The airline said that robust customer demand and low levels of competitor capacity drove its performance, leading easyJet to upgrade its half year revenue guidance.
Last September, the British global travel group Thomas Cook (LON:TCG) collapsed, somewhat relieving competition for easyJet.
Total group revenue for the quarter ending 31 December was up 9.9% to £1.4 billion.
EasyJet added that it expects to post a first half headline loss before tax less than the £275 million loss from the first half of 2019.
Last November, the airline launched its holidays business.
“I’m pleased that we have made a strong start to the year with continued positive momentum,” Johan Lundgren, easyJet Chief Executive, commented on the results.
“The improvement in our revenue per seat has been driven by our self-help revenue initiatives combined with robust customer demand and a lower capacity growth market,” the Chief Executive continued.
“Cost per seat is in line with expectations, helped by our Operational Resilience programme which has not only improved overall customer satisfaction in the quarter but also enabled us to manage our costs.”
“easyJet holidays launched successfully with customers looking to benefit from our unrivalled flexibility, great value and handpicked hotels,” the Chief Executive said.
Commenting on the airline’s sustainability, the Chief Executive continued: “Being an industry leader in sustainability is important to us, and since our announcement in November we have offset the carbon emissions from the fuel used for all our flights. This means nine million customers have flown net-zero carbon flights with us and our offsetting programme has been received very positively by customers, staff and other stakeholders.”
“We, of course, recognise offsetting is only an interim measure and we continue to work on reducing our carbon footprint in the short term, coupled with long-term work to support the development of new technology, including hybrid and electric planes, to reinvent aviation for the long-term.”
Shares in easyJet plc (LON:EZJ) were up on Tuesday, trading at +4.21% at 10:50 GMT.