Wizz Air passenger numbers remain subdued in December

Wizz Air carried 665,772 passengers in December, it announced in its latest passenger statistics on Tuesday, at a capacity of 32% and a load factor of 56.1%.

The FTSE 250 low-cost carrier said its capacity was down 68% year-on-year for the month at 1,187,553, while passenger numbers plunged 80% to 665,722.

Its load factor for the month was 56.1%, down 33.3 percentage points from the 89.4% it reported in December 2019.

On a rolling 12-month basis, Wizz Air’s capacity was down 47.6% for the 12 months ended 31 December at 22,293,106, while passengers were down 58.1% at 58.1%.

Its load factor for the year ended 31 December was 74.8%, down 18.8 percentage points from a year earlier.

The central and eastern Europe-focussed airline did announce six additional new routes from its bases at Doncaster Sheffield, London Gatwick and London Luton in December, to destinations in Turkey, Bulgaria, Spain and Greece.

“Wizz Air continuously operates at the lowest carbon dioxide emissions per passenger kilometre among all competitor airlines, with 67.1 grams per passenger kilometre for the rolling 12 months to 31 December,” the board claimed in its statement.

“For the month of December, emissions in grams per passenger kilometre were 44% higher than last year due to the drop in load factor, while total carbon dioxide emissions in tonnes decreased at a slightly higher rate than capacity.”

At 0816 GMT, shares in Wizz Air were up 0.58% at 4,500p.