EasyJet Shares Rally After ‘Record Summer’

EasyJet (LON: EZJ) shares rallied Wednesday after the airline revealed a 34% increase in annual profits, driven by a “record summer.”

The company's shares are up more than 2% Wednesday, at the time of writing, trading at 553.8p a share. The stock hit a high of 564p earlier in the session.

Reporting a pre-tax profit of £610 million for the financial year ending 30 September 2024, the low-cost carrier exceeded last year's figures by £155 million.

Its holiday division also thrived, contributing £190 million in pre-tax profit, a 56% jump year-on-year.

Passenger growth and strategic initiatives underpinned the results, with a 7% increase in passenger numbers during the second half of the year.

EasyJet flew 100.4 million seats over the year, up 8%, while its load factor remained robust at 92% in the final quarter.

CEO Johan Lundgren credited the strong results to the airline's focus on execution and its growing popularity among travellers.

“This strong performance – resulting in a 34% increase in our annual profits – reflects the effectiveness and execution of our strategy as well as continued popularity of our flights and holidays. It also represents a significant step towards our goal of sustainably generating over £1 billion annual profit before tax,” said Lundgren, who is preparing to step down at the start of 2025.

Incoming CEO Kenton Jarvis highlighted the airline's ambitious plans for 2025, including a 25% growth in easyJet Holidays customers and expanded capacity into popular winter destinations like North Africa and the Canary Islands.

The company's board proposed a dividend of 12.1 pence per share, up from 4.5 pence last year, amounting to £92 million.

Looking ahead, EasyJet said it expects to reduce its winter losses with a significant improvement in Q1, with Q2 impacted by the timing of Easter and a prior year release of aged balances.

So far, Q1 2025 is 80% sold, while Q2 is 26% sold. Capacity growth is expected to be around 3% in FY25, while easyJet holidays customers is expected to grow by approximately 25% in FY25 from a base of 2.6m customers.