EasyJet profits soar after Ryanair slump – but air traffic control needs urgent reform, says boss

The low-cost airline’s profit per seat was £6 between April and June 2024

Going places: EasyJet passengers at Manchester airport (Simon Calder)

Britain’s biggest budget airline, easyJet, saw profits rise by one-sixth in the three months between April and June 2024 compared with the previous year.

The 16 per cent increase in profit before tax from £203m to £236m is in clear contrast with its bigger rival, Ryanair, which this week reported profits for the quarter down by 46 per cent.

The rise was despite the effects of an early Easter; this year Easter Sunday fell on 31 March, which meant many profitable flights went into the previous quarter.

The chief executive, Johan Lundgren, said: “Our strong performance in the quarter has been driven by more customers choosing easyJet for our unrivalled network of destinations and value for money.”

He said the results demonstrated “the continued importance of travel and this means we remain on track to deliver another record-breaking summer”.

Over the three months easyJet flew just over 25 million passengers. Its average revenue per seat was £57, but in addition “ancillary” sales – such as baggage fees or onboard food and drinks – brought in an additional £25 per seat. The profit per seat was £6.

But Mr Lundgren made no repeat of his blistering attack on air-traffic control (ATC) providers in Europe earlier this week.

On Monday the easyJet boss said the European system for controlling the skies was “no longer fit for purpose”, after hundreds of cancellations at the weekend.

He said: “Urgent reform alongside additional resilience and staffing need to be put into place so passengers don’t have to suffer the consequences of lengthy delays or the risk of their flight being cancelled.”

His counterpart at Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, added this week: “In the last 10 days of June we suffered a significant deterioration in European ATC capacity which caused multiple flight delays and cancellations, especially on ‘first wave’ morning flights, making it more urgent than ever that the new EU Commission and Parliament deliver long delayed reform of Europe’s hopelessly inefficient ATC services.”