easyJet ended the first half of the financial year with £1,194 million of cash, a decrease of £17 million against last year. Net cash as at 31 March 2013 was £433 million compared to £42 million at 31 March 2012.
On 1 May 2013, John Barton succeeded Sir Mike Rake as easyJet Chairman. The whole team at easyJet wishes to note its thanks for Sir Mike Rake’s strong leadership of the Board for three years during which easyJet’s total shareholder return was 233%.
Progress against strategic objectives:
Drive demand, conversion and yields across Europe
- Total revenue per seat increased by 8.6% year on year on a constant currency basis, and by 5.8% per seat on a reported basis, to £53.39 as the half year benefited from an early Easter, competitor capacity retrenchment, returns focused changes to easyJet’s network and improvements to its revenue management system.
- Average load factors increased by 1.7 percentage points to 88.6% whilst capacity grew by 3.3% to 30 million seats.
- Cost per seat excluding fuel grew by 3.4% on a constant currency basis and by 3.1% on a reported basis to £38.89. Year on year cost increases were largely driven by increased charges at regulated airports and from higher weather related disruption and de-icing costs.
- easyJet lean delivered an incremental £25 million of savings in the period.
- Successful deployment of capacity from Madrid base which was exited in December 2012 to strengthen easyJet’s position in Edinburgh, Manchester, Gatwick, Geneva, Lisbon and Lyon.
- In the six months to 31 March 2013, easyJet has returned £85 million or 21.5 pence per share to shareholders through the increased payment of ordinary dividend, at three times earnings cover.
- Further to the January 2013 IMS, easyJet has signed sale and operating leaseback agreements for 12 new A320 and 12 of the oldest A319 aircraft.
- Significant improvements have been made in underperforming routes increasing overall network returns.
- easyJet is in the final stages of the commercial evaluation of the next generation of short-haul engine technology. The process has been subject to high standards of governance. In the event that the Board of easyJet concludes that an order will be in the interest of all shareholders, easyJet will bring a proposal to shareholders that will cover both the next generation of deliveries, which are likely to be after 2017, and a plan for the bridging period from 2015 to 2017.
“easyJet delivered a strong first half performance, demonstrating the Company’s structural advantage in the European short-haul market against both legacy and low cost competition, and a continuing resilience against a challenging European macro-economic environment.
Our performance reflects measurable progress against easyJet’s four key strategic objectives that have been amply demonstrated by a significant reduction in the loss for the first half and significant improvement in ROCE over the same period.
Whilst there is always the potential for unexpected events to impact short term financial performance, the outlook for the second half of the financial year combined with the strong reduction in first half losses means that easyJet expects to deliver improved returns and profitability for the year ending 30 September 2013.”
Media Release EasyJet