BUDGET airline easyJet saw year-on-year passenger numbers for December soar by 38.6 per cent.
Passenger numbers, a combined figure with the Go Fly business it acquired last year, reached 1,433,400 in what is always a busy month for airlines when the Christmas éget-awayé is underway. The total number of passengers for the year ending December 31 was 17,922,644.
But easyJetés load factor é the percentage of seats taken based on the number which are available for passengers é dipped from 75.4 per cent which it put down to éa spike (in figures) caused by the sales and promotions launched after September 11.é
Chief executive Ray Webster said: éDecember was a particularly busy month for all of us at easyJet. We flew 1.4 million people, announced a number of new routes to go on sale before the end of the winter and launched our biggest-ever schedule offering 100 routes for the summer.é
EasyJet increased its capacity by 44 per cent in 2002 with the launch of services from Gatwick which increase its stake in the London market. And integrating Go Fly into easyJet and a contract with plane-maker Airbus for 120 A319 aircraft provided a boost for the firm.
Mr Webster added: éWe made real progress in the integration of easyJet and Go by operating under a single Air Operators Certificate and selling seats from a single reservations system utilising the easyJet yield management system.
éWe entered into a contract with Airbus for, amongst other things, the supply by Airbus to easyJet of 120 A319 aircraft with options with price protection on a further 120 A319 aircraft.é
