easyJet sticks to outlook after annual profit soars

LONDON (Reuters) - British low-cost airline easyJet stuck to its outlook for the first-half of the current year, after posting a 41 percent jump in annual profit, in line with its forecasts.

For the 12 months ended Sept. 30, easyJet posted pre-tax profit of 578 million pounds, at the top end of a forecast it gave in September for profit to come in between 570 million pounds ($746 million) and 580 million pounds.

The airline, which is the no.2 low-cost airline in Europe behind Ryanair, stuck to its prediction that first-half revenues per seat would fall by low to mid-single digits compared to the year-earlier period, which had been boosted by a number of one-off factors.

(Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by Kate Holton)