Low-cost airline easyJet lifted first-quarter revenue by 10.5 percent and said it was on track to deliver much higher full-year profit, tapping into a recovery in budget air travel.
The airline, the biggest carrier at London's Gatwick airport, posted revenues of 607.5 million pounds ($991.6 million) as total revenue per seat grew 4.2 percent to 47.50 pounds for the three months to end December.
During the quarter, easyJet took delivery of nine Airbus A319 aircraft and said it had sufficient resources to fund future plane deliveries through until June 2011.
"The underlying performance of the business in the first quarter has been encouraging and easyJet remains on track to deliver substantial profit improvement during 2010," said Chief Executive Andy Harrison, who is due to leave the company in June.
"EasyJet's pretax result in 2010 at current fuel prices and exchange rates is expected to benefit by around 60 million pounds in the first half and 100 million pounds for the full year."
The worldwide economic downturn has battered the airline industry as consumers cut back on trips.
But earlier this week the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said economy travel was growing positively in year-on-year terms, rising 3.5 percent in November and just 4 percent below levels in early 2008.
The industry body forecasts the sector will lose $5.6 billion in 2010, down from a loss of around $11 billion last year.
EasyJet is expected to report an average pretax profit of 169 million pounds for the year to end of September, according to a Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S poll of 15 analysts.
The airline incurred 8 million pounds of additional operating costs from the snow and freezing weather which disruped travel in Europe in recent weeks and expects to take a similar hit in the second-quarter.
EasyJet said it carried 11 million passengers in the quarter, up 9.1 percent compared with the same period last year. Its load factor — a measure of how full its planes were — grew 2.4 percentage points to 85.8 percent.
Irish low-cost rival Ryanair last week said it could slightly raise its full-year earnings forecast after a strong third quarter and is set to raise fares.
Shares in easyJet, which have fallen 6 percent in the last three months, rose 3.3 percent in early trade to 377 pence, valuing the airline at around 1.6 billion pounds.
