EasyJet confident on summer demand as bookings build

By Sarah Young

LONDON (Reuters) -British airline easyJet said on Thursday it was seeing strong demand for flights and holidays, and current summer bookings were tracking ahead of last year, giving it confidence in meeting annual profit forecasts.

EasyJet is the latest European airline to provide reassurance that consumer demand for travel remains strong despite worries over economic headwinds from U.S. tariffs. Also, airlines' costs this year are expected to benefit from lower oil prices.

For the all-important summer season, easyJet said it was seeing a "positive build" in demand for both its flights and its fast-growing package holiday business.

EasyJet chief executive Kenton Jarvis said there was no evidence of any impact on demand from anti-tourism protests in Spain.

"We're very focused on another record summer this year," Jarvis told reporters.

Local people, angry at soaring housing costs and overburdened services, have over the last year protested against mass tourism in popular holiday destinations such as Spain's Canary Islands and Balearic Islands, including spraying visitors with water pistols in Barcelona.

Jarvis, formerly CFO who took over as CEO in January, said while protests were not affecting bookings and Spanish destinations remained popular, the airline was adding capacity in Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt.

EasyJet shares were down 2% in early trading, but are still up 30% from eight-month lows in early April.

EasyJet's positive outlook chimes with bigger competitor airline Ryanair, which on Monday reported strong demand, with summer bookings running 1% ahead of last year.

In contrast, Europe's largest travel operator TUI flagged a 1% drop in summer bookings earlier in May, highlighting uncertainty in Germany, its biggest market.

EasyJet, whose biggest market is Britain, also said its package holiday business was performing well.

For the six months to end-March, its quieter off-season, easyJet reported a pretax loss of 394 million pounds ($529 million), in line with expectations. It said it was on track to meet forecasts for 703 million pounds in pretax profit this year and its medium-term target of 1 billion pounds.

($1 = 0.7449 pounds)

(Reporting by Sarah Young, editing by Paul Sandle and Jane Merriman)