Wizz Air sees operations grow further as emissions per passenger improve

Wizz Air saw further growth in its operations in June, it reported on Monday, with its seat capacity for the month rising 17% year-on-year to 3.798 million, while the number of passengers carried was up 19.1% to 3.609 million.

The FTSE 250 low-cost carrier said that made for a load factor of 95%, which was up 1.7 percentage points on the same time last year.

On a rolling 12-month basis, Wizz Air had capacity of 38.96 million seats in the year ended 30 June - up 14.9% - with total passengers reaching 36.31 million, which was a rise of 16.9%.

Its load factor for the 12 month period was 1.6 percentage points higher at 93.2%.

Looking at the airline’s available seat kilometres for June, they rose 18.1% to 6.18 billion, while revenue passenger kilometres were 20.5% higher at 5.88 billion.

On a rolling 12-month basis, available seat kilometres were ahead 17.1% at 63.27 billion, while revenue passenger kilometres for the 12 months ended 30 June were up 19.2% at 59.08 billion.

Wizz Air also reported on its new metric of carbon dioxide emissions, reporting that total emissions were up 17% year-on-year in June at 336,427 tonnes, although on a per-passenger basis they were down 2.9% at 57.3 grams per passenger kilometre.

Total carbon dioxide emissions on a rolling 12-month basis to the end of June were 16% higher at 3.43 million tonnes, while carbon dioxide emissions per passenger kilometre were down 2.7% at 58 grams.

“In June 2019, Wizz Air continued to grow its network and improve its customer offering,” the board said in its statement, explaining that it signed a memorandum of understanding with Airbus for the purchase of 20 Airbus A321neo XLR aircraft, to be delivered from 2023 onwards.

It also continued its fleet expansion with the delivery of a brand new Airbus 321ceo aircraft, taking the fleet to 114 planes.

Wizz Air announced the allocation of additional aircraft to its bases in Vienna, where it added one aircraft, and Kutaisi, where it added two, and expanded its route network further with the announcement of 38 new routes to and from Poland, where there were two new routes; Austria, where there were 12; and Georgia, where there were 24.

The company reported a “continued improvement” in operational performance in June, with a completion ratio of 99.8% and only 32 cancelled flights out of 19,199 scheduled flights.

“This compares to 76 cancelled in the same month last year,” the board said.

“Wizz Air continues to operate at the lowest carbon dioxide emissions per passenger amongst all competitor airlines,” the board claimed.

“Carbon dioxide emissions for the month of June were 2.9% lower than the same month last year, at 57.3 grams per passenger kilometre.”