EasyJet passenger numbers take off

Shares in budget airline easyJet soared to the top of the Footsie today as strikes by French air traffic controllers France failed to hurt trade.

EasyJet said passenger numbers flew up more than 10% last month and the number of cancelled flights dropped compared to last year despite the French shutdown.

The carrier admitted 380 flights were cancelled, largely due to last month’s strikes. But this figure was below the 585 cancellations in June last year.

Passengers on easyJet flights in June increased by 10.1% to 6.1 million compared to the same month last year. For the year to the end of June, 63.37 million passengers had flown on easyJet — a 5.4% increase on the previous period — and its load factor was up more than 90%.

EasyJet’s shares rose 40p or 3% to 1388p on relief that passenger numbers had not been hit but they are still down 26% in the past three months.

Ryanair also had to cancel some flights but saw a 5% jump in passengers to 8.3 million last month and reported a record 82.7 million travellers for the year.

Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald said the traffic numbers indicate “that leisure travel is holding up despite the still sluggish European economy and the impact of the football World Cup.”

British Airways owner International Consolidated Airlines Group also benefited from the news of strong June numbers and it rose nearly 2% to 371.9p.