Budget airline EasyJet has said that its annual net profits soared by 70% despite earnings being hit by disruption to air travel caused by the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud.
The UK airline said profit after tax jumped to £121.3m in the 12 months to the end of September, up from £71.2m the previous year.
New chief executive Carolyn McCall said the airline's pre-tax profits came in at £154m in the year to September 30 - an increase of £99.3m after sales rose by 11.5% to £3 billion, with passenger numbers up 8% to 48.8 million.
The airline also announced plans to pay a dividend to shareholders for the first time. This should appease founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou, whose family controls around 38% of the shares and has long called for the easyJet board to start payments to shareholders.
The first dividend will be paid in January 2012 and will be based on profits for the year to September 2011. As well as the ash cloud, which cost it £27.3m in lost revenues, the airline's flights were disrupted by snow, which cost it £20.8m.
It also had operational difficulties in the summer, including late-running flights and cancellations, and this situation was made worse by air traffic control strikes in several countries, costing it a further £49.8m.
EasyJet said it had put in place measures to overcome its operational difficulties and pledged they would not be repeated next summer.
The airline has recruited more staff and introduced additional breaks in its schedule, in what the company has described as a long-term fix.
EasyJet also announced it will buy another 24 planes, expanding its fleet to a total of 220 aircraft by September 2013, representing a 7% increase in seats per year.
It today launched a new flexible fare targeted at business travellers that will give passengers flexibility to change their flight up to two hours before the scheduled departure time.
Its other aim is to increase ancillary revenues after it started easyJet Holidays, allowing passengers to book accommodation at the same time as booking a flight.
