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Gatwick drone chaos cost Easyjet £15m

Joanna Faith
Written By:
Joanna Faith
Posted:
Updated:
22/01/2019

Easyjet has said the drone disruption at Gatwick in the run-up to Christmas cost it about £15m.

It said the incident affected around 82,000 customers and led to over 400 flights being cancelled.

However, rising passenger numbers helped the low-cost carrier today report a 14% rise in first quarter revenue to £1.3bn, with passenger numbers up 15% to 21.6 million. However, revenue per seat decreased by 4.2%.

Easyjet also said it was “well prepared” for Brexit, adding that despite uncertainty surrounding the UK’s exit from the European Union, “demand currently remains solid” and bookings for the period post-Brexit “are robust”.

Easyjet chief executive Johan Lundgren said: “For the first half of 2019, booking levels currently remain encouraging despite the lack of certainty around Brexit for our customers. Second half bookings continue to be ahead of last year and our expectations for the full year headline profit before tax are broadly in line with current market expectations.”

Ian Forrest, investment research analyst at The Share Centre, said: “While the first quarter performance and future prospects both remain good the outlook given by the company was not as positive as expected. The market has shrugged that off with the shares rising 2% in early trading today; perhaps due to the understanding these are relatively short term issues.

“With a good balance sheet and a dividend yield over 5% we continue to view the shares as a buy for medium risk investors seeking a balanced portfolio.”