More passengers for Easyjet

Budget airline Easyjet has reported another rise in user numbers during July but the percentage of seats it filled on its planes fell.

The airline said it carried 1,886,265 passengers last month. This was a 75% rise on the same period last year, although the increase is largely down to the inclusion of the Go airline which Easyjet bought last year.

Passenger figures have risen by 9.4% when compared with Easyjet and Go's combined total in July 2002.

July's load factor, or the number of passengers carried as a proportion of available seats, fell to 85.6% from 87.9% a year ago (87.6% in 2002 including Go).

"Easyjet's performance during July continues the trend predicted in our summer trading statement," said the airline's chief executive Ray Webster.

"Particularly pleasing is the achievement of load factors in the mid eighties, which confirms the appeal to passengers of our combination of attractive fares and convenient airports."

Filling the planes

Analysts have increasingly begun to focus on load factor as worries have risen that budget airlines have been expanding too quickly.

Earlier this week, Ryanair said it was cutting ticket prices in order to fill seats after it launched new routes into a tough market.

While it still announced rising profits, Ryanair said its load factor had fallen by five percentage points to 78%.

But chief executive Michael O'Leary said he expected the load factor to climb back above the 80% mark next year.