A Wizz Air plane
(Picture: Wizz Air )Losses at Budget airline Wizz Air have widened to 384 million euros in the six months to September, the firm said today, as a strong summer recovery was unable to offset severe travel disruption earlier in the year.
But the Budapest-based business sounded a note of optimism as it said demand for flights remained strong and confirmed plans to expand its fleet, upping capacity by 35%. The company posted a more than doubling of sales to 2.2 billion euros.
Wizz Air shares fell 6.5% to 1,621p.
Wizz Air boss Jozsef Varadi said: “Whilst there remains some uncertainty during the winter period in relation to macroeconomic and input costs…the continued diversification and growth of our network supported by fleet expansion plans leaves the Company well positioned to drive profitable growth in the future.”
Julie Palmer, partner at Begbies Traynor, said: “Passengers are flocking back to Wizz Air…despite the issues at the start of the year with uncertainty caused by war in Ukraine and trouble at airports as they battled to cope with rebounding passenger numbers after the pandemic.
“But it’s not all good news. Fuel costs soared, although Wizz Air says it will soon have hedges in place to even out fluctuating oil prices. But it was the strengthening US dollar that sent an otherwise strong performance diving deeper into the red.”
