4th Jun 2020 10:27
(Alliance News) - Wizz Air Holdings PLC on Thursday said it operated just 6% of its capacity in May, as Covid-19 lockdowns emptied skies and left the travel sector reeling.
The budget carrier said it had reduced capacity by 94% year-on-year in May to just 207,025 seats, from 3.7 million. But passenger numbers fell even more sharply, to 126,549, a 96% slump from 3.5 million in May 2019. As a result, Wizz Air's load factor fell by more than 30 percentage points to 61.1% from 93.9% a year prior.
Eastern Europe-focused Wizz Air said it carried just 78,389 passengers in April, so the May figure actually represents a 61% month-on-month uptick.
For 2020 so far, capacity is down 6.7% year-on-year to 35.8 million seats and passengers served are down 6.3% to 33.5 million. Load factor is slightly higher however, at 93.4% compared to 93.0%.
Undeterred by the lockdowns, Wizz Air announced the opening of four new bases in May, at Milan Malpensa airport, Italy, Larnaca in Cyprus, Lviv in Ukraine and in Tirana, Albania's capital.
Back in April however, it did say 1,000 jobs were on the chopping block, in an effort to mitigate the financial impact of travel restrictions.
Shares in the FTSE 250 firm were 2.4% lower at 3,570.20 pence each in London on Thursday morning.
The stock had risen by 6.1% on Wednesday, after Wizz Air had reported a rise in its earnings for financial 2020. For the year to March 31, Wizz Air posted revenue of EUR2.76 billion, a 19% rise from EUR2.32 billion reported for financial 2019. Pretax profit was EUR294.1 million, up from EUR128.9 million.
By Eric Cunha; [email protected]
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