Wizz Air's passenger numbers grow 21.8% in February

Budget eastern Europe-focused airline Wizz Air reported 21.8% rise in passenger numbers for February.

Passenger numbers last month grew to 1.72m from 1.41m in February 2016, as the load factor – which gauges how full the planes actually are – rose 5.5 percentage points to 91.9%.

On a rolling 12-month basis, passenger numbers increased 19% to 23.44m.

The number of seats grew 14.5% last month to 1.87m and on a rolling 12-month basis by 16.9% to 26.11m.

In February, Wizz Air announced 12 new routes to and from Macedonia, Latvia, the UK, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Hungary and Poland, as well as establishing its 28th base at London Luton airport with a fourth new Airbus A320 aircraft which will be deployed to Skopje in Macedonia.

The FTSE 250 company also expanded its network to 137 airports with two new routes to and from Frankfurt International airport.