25th May 2016 07:02
LONDON (Alliance News) - Wizz Air Holdings PLC on Wednesday reported growth in profit in its recently-ended financial year as revenue was boosted by growth in passenger numbers and load factor, and it said it expects a "significant" rise in profit for the current financial year.
The Central and Eastern European-focused budget airline said its pretax profit in the year ended March 31 grew to EUR201.4 million from EUR191.7 million the year before, as revenue rose to EUR1.43 billion from EUR1.23 billion.
During the year, Wizz Air carried 20 million passengers, which is a 21% increase on the prior year's 16.5 million, while its load factor rose by 1.5 percentage points to 88.2% from 86.7%.
Wizz Air said its fourth quarter was particularly strong, with a 20% increase in revenue, 1.8% percentage point increase in load factor, and seat capacity growth of 19%, all boosted by the earlier timing of Easter.
Despite the earlier Easter pushing a higher proportion of high yield traffic into financial 2016, Wizz Air still expects a further significant rise in net profit for the current financial 2017 year to a range of between EUR245 million and EUR255 million, excluding exceptional items.
This figure in financial 2016 was EUR224 million, up from EUR146 million the year before.
Wizz Air did say though that its guidance is "heavily caveated" by the revenue performance for the second half of the current year, a period for which it currently has "limited visibility".
"We will continue to expand our route network, drive efficiency in our operating model, and enhance our compelling customer proposition to sustain growth and drive returns for shareholders," Chief Executive Jozsef Varadi said in a statement.
By Karolina Kaminska; [email protected] @KarolinaAllNews
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