Covid-19: despite colossal losses, EasyJet remains optimistic
Due to the containment measures decided in England, France and Germany, Easyjet is currently operating at 20% of its capacity.
REUTERS / Gilles Dequeiros
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
The British airline has lost 1.41 billion euros this year due to the coronavirus epidemic which has grounded planes and plunged the entire airline industry into crisis.
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The British group lost more than 1.1 billion euros, for the year ending September 30 this year.
The pandemic has nailed planes to the ground and sealed the accounts of the entire sector.
EasyJet also warned last October that it would suffer the biggest losses in its history.
This year, and despite the resumption of activity this summer, the company carried around 48 million passengers.
This is two times less than in 2019. Its revenues amount to only 3.3 billion euros this year.
Optimistic EasyJet
Johan Lundgren, the boss of the British transporter, assures us however that his company has "
not only resisted the consequences of the pandemic
", but that it has "
unparalleled foundations to emerge strong from the crisis
".
"
If the figures are awful to read, EasyJet has been nimble in restructuring its activity where it is possible
", recognizes AFP, Richard Hunter, analyst of the online broker Interactive Investor.
It must be said that EasyJet has cut back on its expenses and laid off 4,500 people, or nearly a third of its workforce.
In addition, the company plans to sell eleven A320 planes for 145 million euros, just to strengthen its cash flow.
It also claims to have raised more than 2 billion 600 million euros in cash over the entire year.
On the strength of all this and even if the company does not expect to fly at more than 20% of its capacity, at the start of 2021, it says it is ready to step up the pace as soon as demand returns.
Even the specter of a hard Brexit on January 1, 2021 does not scare him.
As there is strength in unity, the group explains that it has structured itself financially "
as a pan-European air group with three certificates in the United Kingdom, Austria and Switzerland
".
In total 45% of EasyJet's assets are owned by Europeans.
A severely tested sector
EasyJet is unfortunately not the only carrier to suffer from the fallout from the pandemic.
Strongly shaken by the massive cancellations of flights due to confinement, some companies have accused of up to 90% decline in activity.
A big competitor of EasyJet, the Irish Ryanair has also fallen into the red this year.
Another example, the German Lufthansa, number one in Europe, lost 2 billion euros net in the third quarter.
While freight has always been good, the company has survived thanks to financial aid from the German state.
Air France-KLM's activity is also at its lowest.
The Franco-Dutch group would lose up to 15 million per day and had to revise its outlook downwards.
She expects a decline of 60% in December, when she estimated it at only 20% compared to 2019.
Even the Gulf companies, formidable competitors in the sector, are in difficulty.
Emirate, for its part, is losing money for the first time in thirty years.
►Also read:
The air transport crisis causes a hecatomb of job cuts
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Aeronautics
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