Costs up as easyJet brings in extra planes

Budget airline easyJet said yesterday it had been forced to draft in extra aircraft to fill in the gaps in its summer schedule.

New chief executive Carolyn McCall said the temporary action to resolve “crewing issues in some parts of our network” would lift costs by up to three per cent during the current financial year.

The airline is bringing in at least three extra planes and crew during the summer to minimise the impact on customers and staff, although some passengers could find flights rescheduled.

The firm, which had a worse punctuality record than Air Zimbabwe at Gatwick in June, has also been hit by Iceland’s volcanic ash cloud and air traffic control strikes in France.

Almost two-thirds of Easyjet’s planes travel through French airspace, but controllers have been prioritising long-haul flights and aircraft taking off and landing in France.

The issues over punctuality have prompted a threat from easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou to withdraw the use of the “easy” brand from the airline unless it improves its time performance.

Sir Stelios, who resigned from the board in May, has been a vocal critic of the airline’s strategy of “relentless growth” through the recession, believing that profit margins and dividends should be a higher priority.

Easyjet has just finished a court battle with Sir Stelios over the use of the licence for non-airline products such as car hire. It believes he has no right to terminate the agreement on punctuality grounds.

Despite the disruption, Easyjet still expects to make pre-tax profits of between £100 million and £150 million for the full year.

Total revenues were up 5.3 per cent to £759.2 million over the three-month period, which saw rival British Airways disrupted by strikes in its long-running dispute with trade union Unite. Passenger numbers were also 3.5 per cent higher than a year earlier at 12.3 million for the quarter, despite 7,000 flights being cancelled due to the impact of the Iceland volcano, which delivered a £65 million blow to profits.

The unexpected cost came on top of a £21 million bill as flights fell victim to the winter snow.