British no-frills airline EasyJet said today that its revenues climbed 17% in the first quarter of its financial year, boosted by rising passenger numbers, but forecast losses in the first half, citing a weak economic environment.
Revenues rallied by 16.7% to £763m sterling in the three months to the end of December, compared with the same time in 2010, the airline said in a trading update.
The low-cost company, based at Luton airport north of London, added that passenger traffic increased 8.1% to 12.9 million people in the reporting period.
However, the group also forecast that it expected to report interim losses of between £140-160m. That compared with a shortfall of £153m in the first half of the previous financial year.
"EasyJet has made a strong start to the year," said chief executive Carolyn McCall. "This is due to firm control of costs, the strength of easyJet's network, tight capacity discipline and pricing actions taken in the second half of last financial year," she said.
''The good performance in the quarter has meant we are cautiously confident in our outlook for the business," she added.
The company's cost performance in the quarter was boosted by the absence of snow disruption that was experienced in the same part of the previous year. Many airlines suffer losses over the winter period, which covers the seasonally slower months of the year.
