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Budget airline easyJet has said that it expects its annual pre-tax profit to exceed previous expectations.

The low-cost carrier announced the prediction in a statement reporting "strong" passenger growth in September.

It said that it expected to report a growth in its annual pre-tax profit "towards the top end" of earlier guidance of between 40 and 50 per cent.

But the company also stressed that it was anticipating that its total pre-tax profit for the year to September 30th would exceed previous predictions.

The expected growth takes into account a £11 million one-off benefit stemming from the write-back of easyJet's investment in The Airline Group, the carrier said.

Meanwhile Europe's second-biggest budget airline revealed that the number of passengers it carried in September grew by 14.2 per cent over the year. A total of 3.4 million people travelled on easyJet's planes last month.

However the company's load factor, which measures the proportion of seats filled by the airline, slumped by 1.3 percentage points to 85.2 per cent.

The total revenue achieved per seat also dropped by 6.8 per cent over the second half of the year, compared to the corresponding period of 2006.

But easyJet stressed that it expected to report a "substantial improvement" in operating costs in its forthcoming results, including a ten per cent drop in fuel costs.

"We are pleased with our performance over the last financial year having achieved significant improvement in margins," said easyJet's chief executive Andy Harrison, who stressed that the result came despite rising fuel prices and a doubling if air passenger duty.

The airline will announce its preliminary results on November 20th.