easyJet shares lift off as profit down; COO David Morgan to leave role
easyJet PLC on Thursday said Chief Operating Officer David Morgan will retire from his role, while the company announced a sharp dive in headline pretax profit for the third quarter.
The Luton, England-based airline company said headline pretax profit fell 70% to £85 million from £286 million for the prior year.
Headline earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation declined 38% to £304 million from £491 million.
Group revenue rose 2.2% to £2.98 billion from £2.92 billion, but passenger revenue contracted 1.0% to £1.74 billion from £1.76 billion, although airline ancillary revenue rose 2.9% to £753 million and holidays revenue jumped 14% to £489 million.
Passenger figures stood at 25.8 million, nearly unchanged from 25.9 million.
Fuel costs increased to £732 million from £627 million.
The company said it is currently 68% sold for the fourth financial quarter, down two percentage points on-year, with yields broadly flat.
Further, he noted that easyJet is now entering into "the busy summer period".
easyJet expects that easyJet holidays customer numbers will rise by low double digits in the current financial year.
The company added that its final outcome for the financial year remains dependent on important remaining bookings and fuel prices which continue to be volatile.
Chief Executive Kenton Jarvis said: "We have continued to manage the impact of the Middle East conflict, and its effect on fuel prices and booking trends, during the quarter. Pricing has been attractive, driving strong late booking demand for our flights and holidays and our relentless focus on execution has delivered an excellent operational performance."
Meanwhile, easyJet announced that Chief Operating Officer David Morgan, having "significantly improved easyJet's operational performance", has chosen to retire from his current rule and return to flying as an easyJet pilot.
The company said it promoted Chief Commercial Officer Sophie Dekkers to the role of COO, while Daniel Skjeldam will join easyJet on September 1 to succeed her as chief commercial officer. Skjeldam has over 25 years of commercial experience, including aviation experience at Norwegian Air Shuttle.
easyJet shares rose to 5.5% to 617.20 pence each on Thursday morning in London.
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