Headwinds take their toll on profits at easyJet

Employees take part in a mock cabin decompression exercise at the opening of easyJet's European training facility at London Gatwick Airport
Employees take part in a mock cabin decompression exercise at the opening of easyJet's European training facility at London Gatwick Airport
GETTY IMAGES

EasyJet has conceded that it will achieve its lowest rate of profit growth this year since the arrival of Dame Carolyn McCall as its chief executive in 2010.

With air fares tumbling during the autumn because of the effects of terrorist attacks and alerts and against a backdrop of greater competition, Britain’s most successful short-haul airline forecast that pre-tax profits for its financial year to the end of next September would come in at or about £738 million.

That would represent an increase of 7.5 per cent from its 2014-15 profits, a sharp contrast with Dame Carolyn’s first full-year results, in which she reported a quadrupling of pre-tax profit. Since then, profits have increased by another half a billion pounds from 2010’s £188 million to