EasyJet (easyJet.com) (UK) (London-Luton) has benefitted from the recent Air France pilots strikes with an increase in traffic. The airline issued this preliminary financial statement:

The impact of the Air France pilots’ strike in September is expected to increase EasyJet’s revenue by c.£5 million as Air France passengers switched to EasyJet. This combined with the strong finish to the year means that the Board’s expectation is for a pre-tax profit for the twelve months ended September 30, 2014 of between £575 million and £580 million compared with the previous guidance of £545 million to £570 million. In line with its revised dividend policy, EasyJet expects to declare a dividend in respect of the year ended September 30, 2014 based on a pay-out ratio of 40% of profit after tax.

EasyJet will publish its full fiscal year results on November 18, 2014 and will provide further details on its performance in the twelve months to 30 September 2014.

Commenting on the pre-close statement, Carolyn McCall, easyJet’s Chief Executive said:

“EasyJet has continued to execute its strategy, delivering another strong performance in the second half of the year. This has enabled EasyJet to deliver record profits for the fourth year in a row. This will also lead to our largest ever ordinary dividend payment as we are also proposing to increase the proportion of our profits after tax paid in dividends from 33% to 40%.

We finished the year strongly. Our performance demonstrates our continued focus on cost and progress against all our strategic revenue priorities and further emphasises easyJet’s structural advantage against both legacy and low-cost competition.”

Copyright Photo: Ton Jochems/AirlinersGallery.com. Airbus A320-214 G-EZWO (msn 5785) with Sharklets holds short of the runway at Palma de Mallorca.

EasyJet (UK):