By Wizz Air Holdings, the European low-cost airline, announced its financial results for the first quarter and highlighted record-breaking passenger numbers. The company reported a pretax profit of €61.1 million ($66.8 million) for the three-month period ending on June 30, 2020. This is a significant improvement compared to the €452.5 million loss recorded during the same period last year.
Passenger numbers soared to a record high of 15.3 million, a remarkable increase of 25% from the previous year. Consequently, passenger ticket revenue also witnessed substantial growth, surging to €688.2 million from €392.0 million.
The total revenue for the first quarter climbed to €1.24 billion, up from €808.8 million in the prior-year period. Ancillary revenue also experienced a notable increase, reaching €548.4 million compared to €416.8 million last year.
Despite a slight rise in operating expenses by 5.8% to €1.16 billion, Wizz Air successfully managed to decrease fuel costs, leading to savings of €64.3 million (from €508 million to €443.7 million). However, airport, handling, and en-route charges witnessed a 26% surge to €289.3 million, and staff costs rose by 38% to €119.3 million.
Jozsef Varadi, the Chief Executive of Wizz Air Holdings, expressed his confidence in the company’s future performance and its ability to reduce ex-fuel unit costs. He stated, “More resilient operations and improving productivity are expected to continue to reduce our ex-fuel unit cost, and we maintain our previously stated fiscal 2024 profit guidance.”
Looking ahead, Wizz Air reaffirmed its net profit guidance for fiscal year 2024, estimating the range to be between €350 million and €450 million.
As of 0752 GMT, Wizz Air Holdings’ shares experienced a modest decline of 5.6%, equivalent to 132.0 pence, reaching a value of 1,230.0 pence.
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