After low-cost rivals Wizz Air Holding PLC (LON:WIZZ) and Ryanair Holdings PLC (LON:RYA) reported an increase in passenger numbers and load factor for last month, blue chip airlines easyJet PLC (LON:EZJ) and British Airways owner International Airlines Group PLC (LON:IAG) are also likely to have benefited from a last-minute bump in March traffic.
The good March performances come thanks to the squeezing in of the Easter holidays at the end of the month - it was mid-April last year – although the impact of severe weather earlier in the month could take some of the shine off the numbers due from both on Wednesday.
READ: Low-cost airlines Wizz Air and Ryanair carry more passengers in March
Investors in easyJet will be hoping for more of the same, after seeing improved month-on-month numbers in February - nonetheless, the beastly weather disruptions are likely to have had an impact given that key departure hubs in the UK were hampered significantly during the unseasonal near blizzard conditions.
Last month, the budget airline reported a 4% increase in passenger numbers in February to 5.5mln. The load factor, a measure of passengers against the number of seats available, rose 1 percentage points to 93%. On a rolling 12-month basis, passenger numbers rose 9.2% to 82.2mln and the load factor increased 1.6 points to 93.2%.
Given its broader operating sphere, IAG – which also owns Iberia, Aer Lingus, and Vueling - could be proportionately less impacted by the adverse conditions. The marker for IAG to beat was set in February as 5.8% growth, year-on-year, at just over 7mln passengers carried.
Strength in Electrocomponents
Expectations have risen ahead of Electrocomponents PLC's (LON:ECM) latest update, due on Thursday, with recent strong trading coming after a few stagnant years for the electronics distributors’ business.
Liberum Securities expects to see Electrocomponents report full year underlying revenue growth of 13.6%, with all regions expected to deliver double-digit percentage growth.
In a recent note, Liberum analyst Rahim Karim forecast improved margins and dividend growth.
“The electronics market also appears to be extremely strong with a number of companies including Avnet and Arrow Electronics talking to a positive global outlook,” Karim said.
“With this back drop, and acknowledging the tough comps that FY18 present, it would appear that our current underlying revenue growth forecast of 4.6% in FY19 looks conservative.
“At this stage we leave these assumptions unchanged but anticipate the company talking to the market outlook in more detail with its FY18 results in May,” the analysts concluded.
Significant events expected on Thursday April 5:
Trading update: Electrocomponents PLC (LON:ECM), Homeserve PLC (LON:HSV)
Traffic numbers: easyJet PLC (LON:EZJ), International Airlines Group PLC (LON:IAG)
Finals: Walker Greenbank plc (LON:WGB)
Ex-dividends: To knock 8.1 points off FTSE 100 index - Aviva PLC (LON:AV.), Direct Line Insurance Group PLC (LON:DLG), Ferguson Plc (LON:FERG), GKN PLC (LON:GKN), Old Mutual PLC (LON:OML), Pearson plc (LON:PSON), Smith & Nephew PLC (LON:SN.), Smiths Group PLC (LON:SMIN), DS Smith PLC (LON:SMDS), St James’s Place PLC (LON:STJ), Taylor Wimpey PLC (LON:TW.)
Economic data: UK services PMI survey; US weekly jobless claims; US Challenger job cuts report; US international trade numbers