easyJet continues to attract passengers

Profits at easyJet continue to grow by more than 50% and will reach £200 million this year as the airline continues to attract European passengers.

In spite of Gordon Brown’s £2 billion passenger duty and the green lobby’s warnings over air travel, easyJet announced that it carried 37.2 million people throughout Europe over the last 12 months - 13% more than in the previous year.

Over the last year, easyJet has lured passengers by reducing fares by an average of 6.8% but has increased revenues by selling food and drink more strongly on its planes, charging for bags and getting its customers to buy its hotel packages and car hire.

easyJet’s chief executive, Andy Harrison, said the group achieved significant improvement in margins in spite of the doubling of air passenger duty in the UK and record fuel prices.

In other related news, airlines are to abandon paper tickets from June 1 2008. The move will reduce costs by about £5 per traveller when electronic ticketing takes over. It follows a decision by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to place its final order for paper tickets.

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