easyJet posts soaring quarterly revenues

British no-frills airline easyJet said Thursday that revenues climbed 17 percent in the first quarter of its financial year, boosted by rising passenger numbers, but forecast losses in the first half, citing a weak economic environment. Revenues rallied by 16.7 percent to £763 million (914 million euros, $1.2 billion) in the three months to the end of December, compared with the same period of 2010, the airline said in a trading update. The low-cost company, based at Luton airport north of London, added that passenger traffic increased 8.1 percent to 12.9 million people in the reporting period. However, the group also forecast that it expected to report interim losses of between £140-160 million. That compared with a shortfall of £153 million in the first half of the previous financial year. "easyJet has made a strong start to the year," said chief executive Carolyn McCall in the statement. "This is due to firm control of costs, the strength of easyJet's network, tight capacity discipline and pricing actions taken in the second half of last financial year." "The good performance in the quarter has meant we are cautiously confident in our outlook for the business," McCall said. The company's cost performance in the quarter was boosted by the absence of snow disruption that was experienced in the same part of the previous year. Many airlines suffer losses over the winter period, which covers the seasonally slower months of the year.