British budget airline EasyJet said today that it carried 2.75 million passengers in March, up 7.1% from a year earlier.
EasyJet's load factor, a measure of how efficiently it is filling its planes, was slightly ahead of expectations at 86.3%. This was down from exceptionally high loads of 91.1% the year before when Easter fell in March, it said.
EasyJet said its total revenue for the 12 months to the end of March was up 17.7% at £1.4 billion sterling.
On Wednesday Iceland's FL Group said it had sold its 16.9% stake in the airline, making a €140m profit. The group had been rumoured to be considering a bid for EasyJet after it raised its stake last year above 16%.
Rival low-cost carrier Ryanair said earlier this week that its load factor was 79% in March, compared with 80% a year earlier, and that it had carried 3 million passengers in the month, up 17% from the year before.
British Airways also said on Wednesday that its March load factor had slipped 0.5 points to 75.2%, but its passenger traffic had risen 1.8% year on year.
