For the three months to 30 June 2022 (Q1 F23), Wizz Air posted a loss of €452.5 million – up from the £114.4 million loss reported in the three months to June 30, 2021. Income was impacted by the strength of the US dollar causing a non-cash, unrealized FX impact in the income statement, said the airline.
Wizz Air has increased capacity over the year, serving 12.1bn in the reporting period, compared to 2.95bn in the year before. As a result revenue rose by more than 300% to €808.8 million. With the operational ramp up, costs also increased – up by 255.3% to €1.093bn.
József Váradi, Wizz Air Chief Executive commented on the results: “During the first quarter of F23 we continued to ramp-up Wizz Air as COVID-19 transitioned from a pandemic to an endemic setting. Passengers and revenue more than quadrupled versus the same quarter last year, up almost 20% versus pre-pandemic levels, with 30% more capacity operated.”
Váradi pointed to the challenging macroeconomic and operational backdrop as well as the increase in fuel prices for the quarter – which are almost double pre-pandemic levels. He also noted the lingering restrictions from COVID-19, particularly during April and May, alongside the war in Ukraine and supply chain disruptions affecting air traffic control, security and ground operation resources that impacted utilisation figures. Wizz Air does expect to post a “material operating profit” as the results of its investment already through Q2 enhance revenues and lower costs.
Commenting on further business developments during the period, Váradi added: “During the quarter we focused on ramping up our network – restoring capacity in our core markets just below pre-pandemic levels. Around 30% of our new capacity was deployed in markets where we expanded new operations during COVID-19 (e.g. Italy, Albania, Abu Dhabi, new bases in UK and West-Balkans). We’ve now adjusted our network in view of the industry supply chain disruptions, making tactical capacity reductions from June onwards to increase the agility of our operation and supply chain.”
On the summer and the outlook, Váradi regarded the large part of the summer ramp up to be done with and noted that the airline will operate around 30% higher ASKs in the summer compared to pre-pandemic levels. “We expect continued month-on-month momentum in net total fares and loads through the summer as we work to maximize RASK - given the higher input costs - and we expect RASK in the second quarter to improve +10% versus F20. We are encouragingly starting to see normalization of operational disruption levels as we have lowered utilization by circa five per cent for the summer versus F20, still operating industry-leading utilization.”
Total cash at the end of June 2022 increased to €1.583bn.
Wizz Air has expanded its fleet to 157 aircraft with the addition of eight new A321neo aircraft in the quarter. Out of the eight new A321neo aircraft, two were financed with sale-leaseback transactions, while six used JOLCOs. At the same time, Wizz returned four end-of-lease A320ceo aircraft to lessors, which increased the average seats per aircraft to 214 seats. Wizz Air expects 36 new A321neo aircraft deliveries in this fiscal year, while 11 A320ceo aircraft will reach the end of lease and will exit the fleet.