European budget airline easyJet said on Monday it carried 2.37 million passengers in December, up 11.1 percent from a year earlier.

Its load factor, a measure of how efficiently it is filling its planes, stood at 80.5 percent, down 0.2 percentage points.

"December passenger numbers were in line with our expectations. Unit revenue for the month -- the total revenue per seat flown -- showed a year on year improvement, supported by strong ancillary contributions," the company said in a statement.

A newspaper report at the weekend said easyJet had hired Goldman Sachs to help defend itself against a potential takeover bid by Iceland's FL Group.

FL, which owns Icelandair, owns 16.2 percent of easyJet.