LONDON - British low cost airline easyJet upgraded its full-year guidance, forecasting that profit could soar as much as 45 percent this year, benefitting from the collapse of rivals last year and strikes at competitor Air France .

easyJet, which is Europe's no.2 budget airline behind Ryanair, on Wednesday predicted pretax profit for the 12 months to the end of September 2018 in a range of 550 million pounds to 590 million pounds.

That compares to the 408 million pounds it made in 2017 and represents an upgrade from the 530 million pounds to the 580 million pounds it forecast in May.

The upgrade came despite a huge jump in flight cancellations, many of which were due to circumstances out of easyJet's control, including air traffic control strikes in Europe and severe weather.

During its third quarter period, easyJet cancelled 2,606 flights due to industrial action, air traffic control restrictions and weather issues, up from the 314 cancellations in the same period last year.

easyJet's chief executive Johan Lundgren said the airline planned to complain to the European Commission about the air traffic strikes.

(Reporting by Sarah Young, editing by James Davey and Victoria Bryan)

© Reuters News 2018