29th Jul 2020 10:35
(Alliance News) - Wizz Air Holdings PLC on Wednesday hailed its cash position after sinking to a quarterly loss as the Covid-19 pandemic sapped demand for travel and emptied skies.
In the first quarter ended June 30, the budget carrier's revenue dropped by a steep 87% year-on-year to EUR90.8 million from EUR691.2 million. Ticket revenue slumped 92%, while ancillary revenue was down 80%.
Wizz Air swung to a pretax loss of EUR107.4 million from profit of EUR75.5 million a year ago.
Passengers carried fell 93% to just 707,184, a far cry from the 10.4 million a year ago. Load factor dropped 38.2 percentage points to 55.5% from 93.7%.
Chief Executive Officer Jozsef Varadi said: "Wizz Air maintains strong market and liquidity positions after the first quarter, a period which marks one of the most challenging times in the history of aviation."
It ended the quarter with total cash of EUR1.59 billion, down 3.0% from EUR1.64 billion from the year prior. This was due to "rigorous cost management", Varadi said.
"We carried 700,000 passengers with a load factor of 56% at a time when European air travel came largely to a halt. Revenue per available seat kilometre increased 14% due to the company's agile revenue management strategy, as well as an underlying strength in ancillary revenue performance. More importantly, at the end of June, Wizz Air was operating around 70% of its capacity, compared to an average of 11.5% in the first quarter," Varadi continued.
The company decided against giving any guidance for financial 2021, due to "ongoing uncertainty caused by Covid-19".
The company noted that Chief Investment Officer Iain Wetherall will step down on August 15, to "pursue other opportunities".
Wizz Air also noted on Wednesday that at its annual general meeting held on Tuesday, 52% of shareholders rejected an advisory motion to approve the directors' remuneration report for the year ended March 31.
"The board, through the newly comprised remuneration committee, intends to re-engage with shareholders in the coming months to continue to consult on remuneration and wider governance matters. The company will publish an update within the next six months on that engagement and in advance of a new remuneration policy which will be put forward to shareholders at the 2021 AGM," Wizz Air explained.
Wizz Air shares were 4.1% higher at 3,538.00 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.
By Eric Cunha; [email protected]
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