Airline shares soared as Easyjet looked forward to another summer of record profits - despite a £40million hit from conflict in the Middle East.
A post-pandemic boom has helped it to trim first-half losses by £50million but it still lost between £340million and £360million in the six months to the end of March.
Easyjet took a £40million hit from cancelled flights to Israel and Jordan after the Hamas terror attacks but chief executive Johan Lundgren said business was ahead of last year.
The group posted a record £866million profit for the six months to the end of September 2023.
‘We move into the summer with confidence that we can deliver another record performance,' he said
>Turbulence: A post-pandemic boom has helped Easyjet trim first-half losses by £50m but it lost between £340m and £360m in the six months to end of Marc
>Easyjet shares rose 2.3 per cent, or 11.8p, to 530p, while British Airways owner IAG was up 5.7 per cent, or 9.1p, to 169.8p and dapapet Wizz Air climbed 6.6 per cent, or 131p, to 2118p
>The FTSE 100 rose 0.4 per cent, or 29.06 points, to 7877.05 and the FTSE 250 was up 0.6 per cent, or 110.53 points, to 19,450.67
>Rentokil Initial, which won contracts at Buckingham Palace in the 1960s earning a reputation as the ‘royal ratcatcher', said sales in North America rose 1.5 per cent to £761million in the first three months of this year, less than the 2 per cent growth it had forecast. Shares fell 7.6 per cent, or 34p, to 412.9
/>AJ Bell said it now has more than half a million customers after it added 19,000 in the second quarter to the end of March, and assets under administration rose 5 per cent to a record £80.3billion. It increased 1.7 per cent, or 5p, to 300
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