Wizz Air passenger numbers, load factors rise in April

Low-cost airline Wizz Air carried 4,927,076 passengers in April, it said in its monthly update on Tuesday, representing a 32.3% increase compared to the same month in 2022.

The FTSE 250 company, headquartered in Budapest with its UK base at Luton, reported a load factor of 90.9% for the month, up from 83.5% year-on-year.

Its capacity also increased by 21.4% in April 2023 compared to April 2022, with 5,418,024 seats available.

Looking at its carbon dioxide emissions, the airline reported 447,788 tonnes of CO2 emissions in April, representing a 27.8% increase compared to April last year.

However, Wizz Air reduced its CO2 grams per passenger kilometre by 10% year-on-year, with 51.3 CO2 grams per passenger kilometre recorded for April.

On the corporate front, Wizz Air said it continued to grow its network and improve its customer offering in April, including announcing a £5 million investment in biofuel company Firefly, marking its first equity investment in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) research and development.

“The investment seeks to enable a supply of SAF to Wizz Air operations from 2028, receiving up to 525,000 tonnes over 15 years,” the board said in its statement.

“Wizz Air has signed a memorandum of understanding with Cepsa, a leading international company committed to sustainable mobility and energy, for the supply of SAF from 2025.

“The MoU gives Wizz Air the opportunity to purchase SAF to supply the airline's route network across Spain.”

Wizz Air said it also announced the addition of one more aircraft to the Kutaisi, Georgia base.

“A total fleet of four aircraft will increase frequencies and add another destination to a network of routes to and from Georgia's second largest city,

“Wizz Air inaugurated first flights from Sofia, Bulgaria and Naples, Italy to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, along with connecting Rome, Italy to Cairo, Egypt and adding more destinations from Brasov, Romania to the UK and Germany.”

At 1056 BST, shares in Wizz Air Holdings were up 2.58% at 3,099p.

Reporting by Josh White for Sharecast.com.