Budget airline easyJet reported a softening of demand in the first quarter of the current fiscal year due to the outbreak of the new Omicron Covid variant.
The company on Tuesday reported a better-than-expected annual loss and said it expected capacity to return to pre-pandemic levels by the fourth quarter of 2022.
EasyJet posted a headline pre-tax loss of £1.13bn, compared with an £835m loss a year earlier and guidance of £1.14bn – 1.18bn.
“Demand is accelerating with key periods such as October half term, ski and Christmas seeing strong performance. We continue to add capacity and expect to fly around 70% of 2019 capacity in Q2 and expect that Q4 summer capacity will be at near 2019 levels,” the company said.