British airline easyJet said it was confident ahead of the summer season, when it makes all its profit, helped by strong booking levels, higher ticket prices and the growth of its holidays business.
Europe's major airlines including its biggest, Ryanair, as well as Lufthansa and Aer Lingus and British Airways-owner IAG, have all pointed to robust summer bookings.
This shows that consumers are prioritising travel spend despite incomes being squeezed by inflation.
EasyJet has been gradually adding more flights as it recovers from Covid-19 lows in 2020, and said today that by July-September this year its capacity would be back to pre-pandemic levels.
"Demand is strong, and easyJet, like other airlines, is set for a profitable summer," said Bernstein analyst Alex Irving.
Shares in easyJet have climbed 60% since the start of the year, but at their current price of 520 pence they are still down about 60% from their level before the pandemic.
Demand for holidays has soared this year and for the April to June period, easyJet confirmed guidance for revenue per seat, a proxy for ticket prices, to be 20% higher than last year.
For the full year, analysts currently expect easyJet to post a pretax profit of £345m, according to Refinitiv data.
The airline highlighted its expansion in the Greek islands and extra flights in Lisbon, Portugal, in its statement, and said its holiday business, launched in 2019, was growing well and would soon offer trips from Switzerland.
For the six months to the end of March, easyJet reported a pretax loss of £411m, in line with guidance provided in April. The outcome was a 25% improvement on last year.
Ahead of the key summer season, easyJet noted its operational resilience, suggesting it was ready for the pick-up in travel, unlike last year when the industry struggled to cope with a surge in demand.
Many European carriers remain wary of potential strikes particularly by air traffic controllers in France, however.
EasyJet has enough planes on order for growth plans - CEO
The chief executive of easyJet said he s happy with the airline's current fleet plans, and said there is no risk it will not have sufficient planes to meet its growth targets.
Demand for new Airbus and Boeing planes is booming as travel rebounds after the pandemic, with airlines placing orders now to secure narrow-bodies for later in the decade amid worries that the planemakers are nearly sold out.
Ryanair sealed a multibillion-dollar deal for as many as 300 Boeing jets earlier this month , helping to underpin its plan to almost double annual traffic to 300 million passengers by March 2034.
EasyJet is due to receive 163 new Airbus aircraft over the next five years which CEO Johan Lundgren said was enough.
"We don't see that we're going to run out of, you know, metals and aircraft in order to satisfy the ambitions we have on growth," he told reporters today.
"We think we're in a strong position with the order book that we have," he added.
Of the 163 planes on order, a mix of A320neos and A321neos, some will replace older models, while some will be used to add new flights, Lundgren said, highlighting that 18 will arrive next year boosting capacity by 10%.
Supply chain issues mean both plane manufacturers are struggling to deliver new jets on time, but the CEO said that as one of the world's largest A320 family customers, easyJet was well-placed.
"Any challenges we would have from delivery point of view, I think, we're working very, you know, constructively with Airbus to mitigate those," Lundgren said today.
