British low-cost airline easyJet on Monday warned that for the second half of the year, the company is seeing softness in both the UK and Europe, which it believe comes from macroeconomic uncertainty and many unanswered questions surrounding Brexit which are together driving weaker customer demand.
Chief Executive Officer Johan Lundgren said in a statement that easyJet said it expects to report first-half pre-tax loss of about 275 million pounds, with costs set to rise 18.8 percent.
The carrier said it expects revenue for the six months ended March to grow 7.3 percent to about 2.34 billion pounds, with seat capacity increasing 14.5 percent to about 46.2 million pounds.
EasyJet said its European ownership requirements, excluding UK shareholders, had now reached 49.92 percent.
The carrier had last month said it was ready to suspend the voting rights of a small number of shares to comply with rules that require 50 percent plus one share of the company to be owned by EU shareholders following Brexit.
Once Britain leaves the European Union, airlines that will not be majority owned by EU nationals face the threat of losing their right to fly within the EU due to share ownership rules, forcing the airlines to spell out their contingency plans.
Via The Financial Times
