Wizz Air revenues surge in summer to boost core profits

Hungary-based budget airline Wizz Air produced a better-than-expected second quarter to help interim profits soar by a third as passenger numbers rebounded during the summer from the Covid pandemic.

The company on Wednesday said revenue per available seat kilometre improved from -10% during the first quarter to a rise of 11% during the holiday season, boosting core profit to €218m for the half year.

Total revenue rose 149.2% to €2.2bn as passenger numbers more than doubled to 26.5 million. On an operating basis Wizz posted a wider loss of €63.8m compared to a loss of €52m.

"As we move closer to the winter 22/23 season, we are gearing up to operate c.35 per cent higher capacity in the second half versus 2019,” said chief executive Jozsef Varadi.

“Wizz Air's focus continues to be the combined approach of delivering growth while pricing for cost inflation.”

Reporting by Frank Prenesti for Sharecast.com