easyJet revenue up 24%

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Passenger numbers were also up 15 per cent to 18.9 million and load factor (seats bought as a percentage of those available) was 81 per cent, in line with the previous year.

EasyJet said that its total revenue per seat had risen, compared to last year, by 1.5 per cent, while cost per seat was down 0.9 per cent.

However easyJet did concede that higher fuel prices were beginning to have a negative impact on its margins, with unit fuel costs up 24 per cent per seat compared with last year.

Andy Harrison, chief executive of easyJet, said, "easyJet continues to grow in size and strength. GB Airways was smoothly integrated and is delivering larger than expected benefits and has made us number one at Gatwick. We are continuing to grow rapidly in mainland Europe, especially in Italy and France where we have opened new bases during the first half of the year. easyJet now operates Europe's number one air transport network with 280 million Europeans living within an hour's drive of an easyJet flight. These moves also helped to drive the 15% increase in the number of passengers carried. Our load factors remain robust and our forward bookings are slightly ahead of this time last year.

"Oil remains the biggest challenge and uncertainty. The price of jet fuel has risen 35% over the last three months and is now 80% higher than last year.

Nobody knows how much of this increase is driven by short term financial speculation and how much is a longer term sustainable increase. What is certain is that if these fuel increases are maintained many of our weaker competitors will disappear or downsize and easyJet will emerge even stronger reflecting the combination of our business model, our cost advantage, our new fuel efficient fleet and the strength of our network."