British airline easyJet said on Thursday it was seeing strong demand for flights and holidays, and current summer bookings were tracking ahead of last year, giving it confidence it would meet consensus forecasts for annual profit.
For the six months to end-March, its quieter off-season, easyJet posted a pretax loss of 394 million pounds ($529 million), in line with expectations, and an improvement on last year when adjusted for the later timing of Easter this year.
For the all-important summer season, easyJet said it was seeing a “positive built” in demand for both its flights and its fast-growing holidays business, putting it on track to meet forecasts for 703 million pounds in pretax profit this year and its medium-term target of 1 billion pounds.
Its confident outlook fits with bigger competitor Ryanair , which on Monday reported strong demand, with summer bookings running 1% ahead of last year.
Europe’s largest travel operator TUI <TUI1n.DE> had, however flagged a 1% drop in summer bookings earlier in May, warning that 2025 would be challenging and highlighting uncertainty in Germany, its biggest market.
While easyJet operates across Europe, Britain remains by far its biggest market.
($1 = 0.7449 pounds)
(Reporting by Sarah Young）
