Wizz Air's full year profits soar but first quarter to be hit by early Easter

Wizz Air reported on Wednesday a 53% jump in full year underlying net profit to €224m as revenue gained.

Revenue in the year to 31 March 2016 rose 16% to €1.42bn, driven by 21% growth in passengers carried to 20 million and capacity expansion with 12 new aircraft.

The load factor, the number of seats available against the number of passengers carried, rose 1.5 percentage points to 88.2%.

The underlying net profit margin increased from 11.9% to 15.7% while total unit costs fell by 5% to €0.0343 per available seat kilometres.

During the period the company also opened four new bases in Tuzla, Kosice, Lublin, and Debrecen. The group added 69 routes, connecting 124 destinations across 39 countries.

Wizz Air said an earlier Easter boosted fourth quarter revenues but as a result the first quarter of the 2017 fiscal year is expected to show only a marginal rise in net profits and the load factor.

“Notwithstanding the fact that Easter fell one week earlier in 2016 than in 2015 pushing a higher proportion of this high yield traffic into full year 2016, we currently expect a further significant rise in the group's net profit for the current financial year to 31 March 2017 to a range of between €245m and €255m (excluding exceptional items),” said chief executive József Váradi.

“This guidance is heavily caveated by the revenue performance for the second half of FY2017, a period for which we currently have limited visibility.”

Shares fell 0.45% to 1,9800p at 0926 BST.