EasyJet says BA and Ryanair strikes have boosted its profits

EasyJet has been given a lift by recent strikes at rivals British Airways and Ryanair, which boosted its revenues and profits. The budget airline expects to make headline pretax profits of GBP420m to GBP430m for the year to 30 September. This is at the top end of City forecasts but will still be below last year’s profits of GBP578m. More than 2,000 BA flights were grounded last month when pilots went on strike for two days. BA owner IAG has warned that the walkouts would reduce this year’s profits by E137m. There are additional costs caused by threatened strikes by ground staff at Heathrow airport and lower bookings at its Vueling carrier, which means IAG’s full-year operating profits will be E215m lower than last year’s E3.48bn. Ryanair pilots also took industrial action in September, prompting some travellers to switch to other airlines, although Ryanair flights ran as scheduled in the end. EasyJet said the strikes helped its revenue per seat increase by 0.8% in H2, compared with its previous expectation that the figure would be “slightly down”. Its CE, Johan Lundgren, said: “As a result of our self-help initiatives and the increased demand due to disruption at British Airways and Ryanair, we anticipate achieving headline profit before tax for the full year 2019 of between GBP420m and GBP430m, in the upper half of our previous guidance range.” EasyJet had previously pencilled in a full-year profit of GBP400m to GBP440m. Richard Hunter, head of markets at trading platform Interactive Investor, said: “The unfortunate demise of Thomas Cook could also provide further opportunities.”<br/>