14th Apr 2022 10:20
(Alliance News) - Wizz Air Holdings PLC on Thursday said it expects a widened annual loss but is preparing for strong demand over the upcoming summer season.
Shares in the budget airline were up 7.2% at 3,099.29 pence in London early Thursday.
In the final three months of the company's financial year, ended March 31, it expects to report an operating loss between EUR190 million and EUR210 million - which would beat previous expectations, thanks to a "stronger trading environment".
For the full-year, however, its net loss is guided between EUR632 million and EUR652 million, which would be widened from the EUR576.0 million posted for the 2021 financial year - which was its first annual loss since 2012.
To begin financial 2023, Wizz said it is ramping up operations for a "busy" summer programme with the firm expecting to operate available seat kilometres 30% ahead of the April to June 2019 quarter and more than 40% ahead of the July to September 2019 quarter.
"We have been encouraged by demand trends in recent weeks and given the shorter booking horizon expect the bookings for this summer to build significantly after Easter," the airline added.
Central and eastern Europe-focused Wizz added that it continues to monitor the situation in Ukraine, Moldova and Russia. While flights to and from these locations remain suspended, the company has reallocated the affected capacity to other parts of the network.
"In F22 the aviation industry continued to be impacted by Covid-19. The latest virus variant, Omicron, proved to be of benign nature, which helped to relax government travel restrictions across a majority of our network. Distressingly, the war in Ukraine dented demand for air travel and destabilized commodity prices across the globe," said Chief Executive Jozsef Varadi.
"Despite these developments we are starting to see recovery take shape as we move closer to the summer of 2022."
By Lucy Heming; [email protected]
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