FRANKFURT: Low-cost airline EasyJet (EZJ.L) has felt no impact on its business from the ongoing debt crisis in the euro zone, its chief executive told a German newspaper.
Asked whether the company had felt any fallout, Carolyn McCall told Welt am Sonntag: "So far we haven’t. People don’t seem to let events in Brussels ruin their summer holidays. Of course, that can change any day."
"However, there seems to be a difference between British and German clients. The Brits don’t seem to care at all about what happens in the world (when it comes to travelling). Even during this year’s unrest in northern Africa they kept on flying to Egypt. That may be due to the bad British weather."
EasyJet last month said it was to pay out a total of 195 million pounds ($303 million) in dividends after the Luton, southern England-based company reported an underlying pretax profit of 248 million pounds, at the upper end of forecasts, in the year to September.
The rise was led by an 11.8 percent increase in passenger traffic – with one million more people using easyJet for business travel – and a 1.3 percent fall in underlying costs per seat.
McCall said it aimed to further increase its share of business customers: "We want to increase that share to 20-23 percent (from about 18 percent now) in the coming five years," she was quoted as saying.
Industry body IATA expects airlines to suffer over the next year due to waning consumer confidence, sluggish international trade and high fuel prices.
"We have hedged our kerosene need for the coming months by 80 percent against rising oil prices. By September 2012, it’ll be 73 percent already … However, our kerosene costs will be higher than in the past fiscal year," McCall said.
