Budget airline easyJet carried 2.37 million passengers in February, up 9.4 per cent from a year earlier, it said yesterday.

EasyJet's load factor, a measure of how efficiently it is filling its planes, was 83.7 per cent from 85.9 per cent a year earlier, it said.

The airline on February 22 forecast a wider first-half loss due to rising fuel costs but said non-ticket revenues and cost cuts would keep it in the black this year.

The airline's total revenue for the 12 months to the end of February was up 19.8 per cent at £1.41 billion, it said yesterday.

EasyJet filled fewer of the seats available on its planes compared with the same month a year ago after expanding rapidly and putting on more routes.

Rival low-cost carrier Ryanair said its load factor was 78 per cent in the month and its passenger numbers rose 22 per cent.

British Airways said its February load factor was 71.2 per cent and its traffic as measured by revenue passenger kilometres rose 3.6 per cent.