26th Jan 2023 10:47
(Alliance News) - Wizz Air Holdings PLC on Thursday posted a rise in passenger numbers and revenue in its third-quarter, though it still expects to make an annual loss.
Shares in the budget airline were 6.7% lower at 2,809.32 pence each in London on Thursday morning. It is still up 48% so far this year, however.
Revenue in the three months to December more than doubled to EUR911.7 million from EUR408.4 million a year earlier.
It said passengers carried jumped 59% to 12.4 million from 7.8 million a year prior.
Wizz Air swung to a third-quarter reported profit of EUR33.5 million from a EUR267.5 million loss. This was helped by a EUR220.9 million foreign exchange gain, compared to a EUR43.7 million forex loss a year prior.
"On the cost side, operational adjustments contributed to a significantly lower flight disruption cost compared to prior quarters. The strengthening euro currency helped to reduce overall fuel and certain maintenance costs; however, its biggest impact was on revaluation of US dollar leasing liabilities, reversing most of the prior two quarters' losses," Chief Executive Officer Jozsef Varadi said.
Wizz Air made another operating loss, however, though it narrowed year-on-year to EUR155.5 million from EUR213.6 million.
Operating costs surged 72% year-on-year to EUR1.07 billion.
CEO Varadi added: "More generally, we continue to see evidence of solid fare environment as average fares (combined ticket and ancillaries) are trading above 2019 and 2022 levels. As we reach the end of January, we are seeing booking volumes coming in ahead of 2022, which is in line with expectations.
"Recently, we have also seen load factors improve, particularly November, but also during December, despite the impact of skewed directional traffic, which is characteristic in this period. We expect to see load factor gap continue to close vs 2019 in the coming quarters as our recent network investments start to mature."
Wizz Air's load factor improved to 87.3% in the third-quarter, from 77.1% a year prior.
Looking ahead, Wizz Air still expects a net loss this financial year, but is "confident" the next one will be profitable.
It made a EUR642.5 million net loss in financial 2022, widened from EUR576.0 million. Its last net profit was the EUR201.1 million achieved in financial 2020.
By Eric Cunha, Alliance News news editor
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