London - Low-cost airline easyJet issued a profits warning on Thursday, saying that losses would deepen in its first half-year mainly because of the way the date of the Easter holiday falls.
The group said it expected to report a pre-tax loss of £70-90m (€85-110m, $116-$150m) in the six months to the end of March.
That compared with a loss of £61m in the same period of its previous financial year.
The company said that last year Easter, when many people in Europe go away on holiday, had fallen on March 31, generating an extra €25m of sales for the first-half figures.
This year Easter falls in April, the group noted.
The price of shares in the company was showing a fall of 1.27% to 1 720 pence in mid morning trading. The overall FTSE 100 stocks index was showing a fall of 0.18%.