Easyjet reports record profits for fifth straight year

Easyjet has posted its fifth successive year of record profits, boosted by what the airline said were "favourable economic and consumer trends".

Annual profits at the carrier, which has just celebrated its 20th birthday, jumped 18% to £686m.

Revenues rose 3.5% to £4.68bn, with passenger numbers up 6% to 68.6 million in the year to end-September.

The figures do not include any possible impact on Easyjet services to Egypt after last months's Russian jet crash.

But the airline's chief executive Carolyn McCall sais in the statement that the trading outlook for the group as a whole was strong.

"Our outlook for the longer term is positive. We expect demand in our markets to be sustained and for Easyjet to continue to be a winner in its markets. We will see passenger growth of 7% a year."

Easyjet's load factor, a key industry measure of how many seats are filled per flight, rose to 91.5% from 90.6%.

'Safety first'

After the downing of a Russian aircraft last month, killing all 224 people on board, the UK government suspended services to Sharm el-Sheikh airport pending a security review.

Ms McCall told the BBC Radio 4's Today programme that by the end of Tuesday all Easyjet passengers would have been brought back to the UK.

She said that increased airport security following the Russian jet crash, and attacks in Paris on Friday, was inevitable.

"It will take a little longer to get though airports, but I do not think that passengers will mind because it has to be safety first," she said.

Ms McCall said she did not expect any lasting impact on trading, with fewer passengers flying following the attacks. "There's always a cooling off after tragic events," she said. "But it does resume after a period of time, and I think that we will see this here."

Easyjet is the second biggest carrier in France, with 1,000 employees there.