EasyJet, a leading low cost airline in Europe, has announced its decision to increase its annual profit forecasts after the carrier recorded higher than expected revenue per seat during the summer.

EasyJet has said that it expects its pre-tax profits to be in the range of £470 million to £480 million during the year till September. The prediction is at the top of the July forecast, which was itself revised upwards by the company. The carrier, which is a FTSE 100 firm, said that revenues per seat rose six per cent while the costs rose 4 per cent during the period.

Chief executive Carolyn McCall said, "EasyJet has delivered a strong performance in the last twelve months due to management action to generate value to our customers and maintain a tight control of costs combined with an unusually benign capacity environment."

The Luton-based airline pointed out that its plans to add flights on routes where its rivals were scrapping services, strengthened its earnings in the year. The airline said that it recorded a 4.8 per cent rise in traffic for September at
5.7m passengers while the number of people flying with the airline grew to 60.75 million during the entire year.