Wizz Air passenger numbers jump 21%, emissions fall

Low-cost airline Wizz Air saw passenger numbers rise by more than a fifth last month, driven by rising capacity on fuller planes.

Load factor, a key metric for airlines that measures the percentage of filled seats to spare seats, rose to 92.4% in September, up from 87.1% a year earlier. The rolling 12-month load factor improved to 90.9%, from 84.6% the year before.

Capacity during the month of September stood at 5.99m, an increase of 14.1% year-on-year, while the rolling 12-month capacity totalled 63.33m, up 30.5% over the year.

The result was passenger numbers of 5.54m during September, up 21.1% on a year earlier, and a 40.2% annual jump in the rolling 12-month figure of 57.57m.

Meanwhile, despite an overall 20.1% annual jump in total CO2 emissions in September to 497,606 tonnes, emissions per passenger per kilometre actually fell 7.4% to 51 grams. The rolling 12-month figure was down 9.6% at 51.6g.

"Wizz Air consistently reports the lowest CO2 emissions per passenger/km among competitor airlines," the company said.

Shares were down 0.2% at 1,920p in early deals on Tuesday.