easyJet currently carries passengers on 289 routes, using 77 airports in 21 countries.

Budget airline easyJet has delivered record 12 month pre-tax profits of £202 million – an increase of 56% year-on-year.

Profits were boosted by an increase in passenger numbers. The Luton, UK-based company carried 37.2m people during the year ending 30 September 2007– up 13%.

In addition, the year saw the airline add eight destinations and 46 routes to its network, bringing its total to 289 routes, using 77 airports in 21 countries.

According to easyJet, its fleet now totals 137 aircraft with an average age of 2.7 years, making it “one of the most modern and environmentally efficient fleets in Europe.”

Commenting on the results, Andy Harrison, easyJet Chief Executive said: “This is yet another year of record profit at easyJet which underlines the strength of our business model. Despite challenging conditions, revenue, profit and return on equity have all shown strong improvements reflecting the success of our focus on low cost with care and convenience.”

Looking forward, the group described the current fuel environment as “challenging,” but said it expected costs to be partly offset by the weak US dollar.

“For this winter we expect total revenue per seat to be broadly in line with last winter. For summer 2008 we expect the effect of annualising APD, checked bag charges and growing ancillary revenues to result in total revenue per seat being ahead of the previous summer,” Harrison added.

By Natasha Piscitelli