easyJet Reports Passenger Rise of 4.4% in March

easyJet has reported its paid seats in March increased by 4.4 percent to 4,629,241 from 4,435,624 in the same month a year ago.

Europe's second-largest discount airline noted that earned seats include seats that are flown whether or not the passenger turns up as it has no-refund policy.

The load factor, its capacity utilisation measure, rose by 1.9 percentage points to 88.8 percent from 86.9 percent in March 2011.

For the rolling 12 months ending March 2012, passenger volumes grew by 8.9 percent to 55,793,372 from 51,234,443 and the load factor was 88 percent, up 0.9 percentage points from 87.1 percent last year.

Shares in the group were little changed in the opening hours of London trading, changing hands at 485.1p per share.