Profits boost leads to Easyjet shareholder dividend

New chief executive Carolyn McCall reported pre-tax profits of 154m in the year to September 30 - an increase of 99.3m after sales rose by 11.5 per cent to 3bn, with passenger numbers up 8 per cent to 48.8 million.

The airline's strong results were achieved despite disruption caused by the Icelandic volcano that meant easyJet had to cancel 7,314 flights, disrupting 960,000 passengers.

The plan to pay a dividend next year should appease founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, whose family controls around 38 per cent of the shares and has long called for the easyJet board to start payments to shareholders.