Wizz Air reports bumper April as passenger growth beats capacity increase

Central and Eastern Europe-focussed low cost airline Wizz Air posted its passenger statistics for April on Wednesday, with passenger numbers for the month improving 30.5% year-on-year to 2.32m.

The FTSE 250 firm said capacity was up 25.3% in April year-on-year at 2.57m seats, while its load factor improved 3.6 percentage points to 90.1%.

On a rolling 12 month basis, Wizz Air’s capacity was ahead 17.3% in the year to April 2017 compared to the 12 months to April 2016 at 27m seats, while passengers were up 20.2% at 24.31m and its load factor improved 2.2 percentage points to 90.4%.

“In April 2017, Wizz Air continued to expand its network and operations,” the board explained in its release, pointing to its route expansion during the month with three new routes to and from Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

The airline also expanded its base in Bosnia & Herzegovina, by adding a second aricraft at Tuzla.

Wizz Air’s network now encompassed 140 airports in 42 countries, with two new routes to and from Astana in Kazakhstan and Agadir in Morocco, and the airline took delivery on one new Airbus A321, taking its fleet size to 80.