26th Jan 2022 11:03
(Alliance News) - Wizz Air Holdings PLC said on Wednesday it expects demand in January, February and March to be hurt by travel uncertainty caused by the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
The Hungary-based European budget carrier said it now expects its operating loss for the fourth quarter of financial 2022 to be "slightly higher" than the EUR213.6 million loss in the third quarter that Wizz reported on Wednesday.
Wizz Air's financial year ends March 31.
For the third quarter, which ended on December 31, Wizz Air reported revenue of EUR408.4 million. This is nearly triple from a year before where revenue stood at EUR149.9 million. However, it remains below its pre-pandemic figure of EUR512.7 million in the last three months of 2019, which was the third quarter of financial 2020.
Third-quarter passenger ticket revenue more than doubled to EUR162.3 million from GBP68.3 million and passengers carried more than tripled to 7.8 million from 2.3 million in the previous year.
In the third quarter of financial 2020, passenger ticket revenue was EUR291.1 million and passengers carried stood at 8.1 million.
Group Chief Executive Jozsef Varadi said: "Wizz Air continued its recovery during the third quarter of financial 2022 and well exceeded 2019 passenger and capacity levels in the peak holiday travelling period, despite the emergence of the Omicron variant.
"Our operating loss was EUR213.6 million as travel restrictions continued to affect demand as we continued to ramp up our workforce, fleet, bases and routes to support our path to full utilisation and pre-Covid 19 cost structure by late spring 2022."
Looking forward, Wizz Air said that, despite the short-term headwinds, the company is "cautiously" optimistic for a continued recovery into spring and a near-full utilisation from summer onwards.
Shares in Wizz Air were up 4.7% at 4,460.00 pence on Wednesday morning in London.
By Heather Rydings; [email protected]
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