easyJet PLC on Thursday said it will promote its chief financial officer to chief executive next year, as the Luton Airport-based budget airline reported half-year results in line with its earlier guidance.

easyJet shares were down 6.2% to 496.60 pence early Thursday in London.

easyJet said Kenton Jarvis, who has been CFO since 2021, will replace Johan Lundgren as CEO early in 2025. Lundgren has been in charge since the end of 2017, guiding the airline through the Covid-19 pandemic, which all but halted travel.

easyJet said it now will start a search for Javis’s replacement as CFO.

easyJet said its pretax loss narrowed to £347 million in the six months that ended March 31 from £415 million a year before, as revenue rose by 21% to £3.27 billion from £2.69 billion.

Airlines, particularly leisure-focused carriers, tend to lose money in the winter low season, making up for this with profit in the summer high season.

CEO Lundgren said: ‘We are now absolutely focused on another record summer which is expected to deliver strong FY24 earnings growth and are on track to achieve our medium-term targets.’

easyJet reported revenue per seat of £69.87 in the first half, up from £66.46 a year before. The airline had a capacity of 42.3 million seats during the six months and carried 36.7 million passengers for a load factor of 86.7%, down from 87.5% a year before.

Looking ahead to all of financial 2024, it expects RPS to be only slightly ahead of a year before in the third quarter, noting that the Easter peak was in March this year, so benefited the second quarter.

For the fourth quarter, easyJet expects a load factor slightly up on a year before.

easyJet said it remains on track for its medium-term target of more than £1 billion in annual pretax profit. In financial 2023, easyJet reported pretax profit of £432 million.

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