EasyJet quietly confident for year ahead

No frills airline easyJet has reported a 28% fall in annual pre-tax profits, but is confident its performance will be better over the coming year. Pre tax profit for the year ended September 30 fell from £71.6million to £51.5million. The company said this was due to the Iraq conflict along with “a number of one-off costs “ including giving up the option to buy DBA from British Airways, its integration of Go and aircraft depreciation. On a more positive note, passenger numbers increased by 79% to 20.3million, helped by the acquisition of rival Go in July 2002. EasyJet Chief Executive Ray Webster said the airline was expecting capacity growth of around 20% for the current financial year. He added: “Although there remains a degree of uncertainty, the economic environment is improving and is substantially better than at this time last year. Our business model, based on low-cost and convenience, has shown its resilience and I am cautiously optimistic about our performance in the current year.”