Webster warns of "brutal" winter

Ray Webster, easyJet's ceo, warned of a “brutal” winter of high fuel prices and more low cost carriers entering the European market.Mr Webster was delivering what he called “creditable results” which showed the low cost operator made a pre-tax profit of £62.2m in the 12 months to September 2004, a year-on-year rise of 21%.
The airline also reported that in this period:
* revenue increased by 17% to £1,091m
* passenger numbers jumped by 20% to 24.3m
* the load factor was up from 84.1% to 84.5%
* but that total revenue per passenger was down 2% to £44.82 because of “increased competition.”
He said the results in a “challenging market” reflected the “resilience of the easyJet business models and have strengthened our position in the European airline market.
“Both financially and operationally we are stronger than we have ever been before and, despite the high fuel price and degree of competition in the market, we are well placed for the coming year.”
But he added he expected the remaining months of to be “challenging” and that competition would be “intense” with fuel prices and foreign exchange “unknown factors.”

* Icelandair looks unlikely at the moment to make any bid to raise its 10.1% stake in easyJet. Icelandair group chairman Hannes Smarason met easyJet founder and major shareholder Stelios Haji-Ioannou but both sides said nothing came of the meeting.
* Icelandair reported a rise in post-tax earnings of €11.5m to €31m for the nine months to the end of September. Its income for the period was €391m and its operating costs were €357m.