* FY underlying pretax profit 188.3 mln stg vs 43.7 mln stg
* To increase fleet size to 220 planes by 2013
* Passenger numbers up 7.9 percent to 48.8 million
* Shares fall 4 percent
(Adds company, analyst comment, shares, detail)
By Rhys Jones
LONDON, Nov 16 (Reuters) - EasyJet said it would pay its first ever dividend in 2012 after rising passenger numbers and a lower fuel bill helped the low-cost airline more than quadruple its full-year profit.
The budget airline said on Tuesday its underlying pretax profit rose to 188.3 million pounds ($300 million) in the year to the end of September, up from 43.7 million pounds a year earlier, while revenues grew 11.5 percent to 2.97 billion pounds.
Carolyn McCall, EasyJet's Chief Executive, said the airline would pay its first ever dividend in 2012, in respect of the year ending September 2011.
"The time is right to set in place a formula to trigger a dividend payment in years when the company is profitable whilst at the same time ensuring that it retains a conservative capital structure," said McCall.
"We therefore intend to commence the payment of an annual dividend based on a dividend cover of five times."
EasyJet's founder and largest shareholder Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who had for some time urged the business to return cash to investors, said in a statement the move was "a welcome change" but added that he wanted the payout ratio "increased to 50 percent of earnings per share" over time.
Shares in the company, which have risen by a third in 2010, were 4 percent lower at 453.4 pence by 1015 GMT, valuing the business at around 2 billion pounds.
"Medium-term guiding principles will be driving improvement in margins to achieve profit per seat of five pounds, increase the focus on business customers and the network and the planned increase in the fleet," said Credit Agricole analyst Loic Sabatier.
The carrier, which was hit by 97.9 million pounds of costs related to various disruptions during the year, said it hoped to add 24 planes to its fleet to take it up to 220 aircraft by September 2013, representing an average annual growth rate of 7 percent per annum in seats flown.
"From 2013-2015 we have flexibility in our fleet plan in that our growth can be anywhere between 4 and 8 percent," said McCall. "We have built that flexibility into our strategy because no one knows what the economic outlook is going to be over next five years."
The carrier said fuel costs fell by 122.7 million pounds during the year, while passenger numbers rose 7.9 percent to 48.8 million.
(Editing by Mark Potter and Alexander Smith)
($1=.6274 Pound)