25th Jul 2018 09:02
LONDON (Alliance News) - Wizz Air Holdings PLC on Wednesday said its profit in the first quarter of its current financial year decreased, hurt by higher costs and air traffic disruptions.
For the three months ended June 30, pretax profit declined 14% to EUR52.1 million from EUR60.5 million in the same period the previous year, while revenue rose 18% to EUR553.4 million from EUR469.3 million.
The lower pretax profit came in due to the increased expenses. Staff costs were 37% higher year-on-year at EUR46.4 million compared to EUR34.0 million while fuel costs jumped 32% to EUR154.7 million from EUR117.1 million.
Airport, handling & en-route charges also climbed 23% to EUR138.9 million from EUR113.2 million a year earlier.
Passenger ticket revenue improved by 25% to EUR330.4 million, while ancillary revenue rose 9.3% to EUR223.0 million.
Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation, and restructuring or rent costs decreased 2.8%; however, to EUR151.4 million from EUR155.9 million posted a year prior.
The airline reported a 20% rise in the number of passengers carried in the three months, to 8.6 million from 7.2 million for the same period a year before, while load factor increased by 0.9 percentage point to 92.1% from 91.2%.
Revenue per available seat kilometre decreased by 1.4% to 3.67 euro cents from 3.72 cents in the same period of 2017 due to air traffic disruptions, leading to weaker bag revenue and higher level of cancellations.
"Wizz Air has once again delivered double-digit growth in passenger numbers and revenues, while also delivering ever higher load factors and net profit of EUR50 million in the first quarter," said Chief Executive Jozsef Varadi.
"Wizz Air is well positioned to deliver in 2019 and beyond and we remain confident in our full year guidance of EUR310 to EUR340 million net profit for the year," added Varadi.
The stock was trading 4.4% lower on Wednesday at 3,401.00 pence per share.
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