Geoffrey Smith 

Investing.com — EasyJet (LON:) reported a loss of 545 million pounds before taxes for the first half of its fiscal year and warned that it still can’t give guidance for the full year.

Although the loss was within expectations, it was an improvement on last year’s 711 million. It also points toward the higher end of its guidance range.

While the airline said that domestic and leisure travel are running ahead of levels in 2019, it also noted that rising fuel costs and wider inflationary pressures have hindered its ability to forecast financial results for the next six months.

EasyJet saw strong trading in the Easter period due to economies throughout Europe relaxing their COVID-19 limitations. grew by more than 500% in a single year to 1.50 billion British Pounds.

Load factors – a measure of capacity utilization – ran at 90% during the holiday period, it said, adding that it expects them to stay at that level over the crucial summer quarter, the final quarter of its fiscal year.

Additionally, it noted that fourth-quarter ticket yields are about 15% above 2019 levels.