Budget airline easyJet has announced that it flew 11 per cent more passengers in December than the year before.
The Christmas period saw easyJet fly a total of 2,638,279 passengers to a variety of popular destinations such as Amsterdam, Barcelona and Prague. In the UK, the company flew from 13 British airports including Glasgow, Newcastle and Liverpool.
The increase in passengers has led to total revenues of £1.6 billion at the end of 2006, an increase of 20.7 per cent on the previous year.
Headed by entrepreneur Stelios Haji-Ioannou, easyJet has reduced operating costs by selling 95 per cent of its seats online, running ticket-less travel and scrapping complimentary airline food.
Last week Europe's biggest budget airline, Ryanair, announced similarly positive trading results. The airline, set up in 1985, was up 19 per cent in December 2006 compared to the previous year.
The company, based at its bright orange easyLand site near Luton airport, has currently been in the headlines for refusing to fly to and from Bristol airport over safety concerns regarding the newly resurfaced runway. Some flights were diverted to Cardiff's airport while many were cancelled, causing travel troubles for many customers.
Digg 
Delicious 
Reddit 
StumbleUpon 
Google 
Technorati 
Netvouz