Wizz Air has reported a fiscal first quarter 2022 loss of €119 million on a year-over-year increase in revenue of 119 percent to €199 million. On June 30, 2021, the carrier had liquidity of €1.7 billion, including €1.5 billion in cash.
On Wednesday (July 28, 2021), Wizz Air Holdings Plc reported their fiscal 2022 first quarter financial results for the period ending June 30, 2021. The airline reported a statutory loss of €114.4 million and a net loss, excluding exceptional items, of €118.7 million on a year-over-year increase in revenue of 119.2% to €199 million. During the first quarter, Wizz carried nearly 3.0 million guests compared to 707,000 in the same period last year. The carrier’s load factor increased 8.1 points versus Q1 F21 to 63.6 percent. At the close of the first fiscal quarter, Wizz had approximately €1.7 billion in liquidity, including €1.5 billion in free cash.
In Wednesday’s announcement, Wizz Air’s Chief Executive, József Váradi, said in part,
“The first quarter of F22 remained challenging for the Company as we operated only 33% of our available capacity as mobility restrictions continued to be a major barrier to international travel during this period. We were focused on cash and delivered a cash flow positive quarter, with a strong liquidity balance of c.€1.7 billion, including c.€1.5 billion of free cash - as well as maintaining our investment grade balance sheet.
“Through the quarter we did see encouraging recovery patterns in passenger air travel. People began returning to flying despite mobility restrictions still impacting travel. We carried 3.0m passengers during the quarter, more than four times the number we carried in the same period of last year. As the quarter progressed, we deployed higher levels of capacity with June operating 62% of 2019 available seat kilometers…
“…We continued to strengthen our network for the future, expanding our Italian market presence further by adding two more bases, in Rome and Naples. Rome, Fiumicino began operating with five new A321 aircraft from July and Naples will have a 2 aircraft operation starting as of August. In Tirana, Albania, we added a 5th A321 aircraft as we continued to see positive results and strong demand for our product and service…
“…We continued ramping up and growing our operations by recruiting, onboarding and training 600 additional crew. With that we expect aircraft utilization to increase to 10 hours per day, getting closer to our pre-pandemic flying times of 12+ hours per day. In July and August 2021, we expect to operate around 90% and 100% of our 2019 capacity, respectively, making Wizz Air the first major European airline to fully recover capacity to pre-Covid-19 levels...
“...We remain strategically disciplined on cost and we continue our fleet renewal, returning two A320CEO aircraft with 180 seats and taking deliveries of six new A321NEOs with 239 seats, that sets our fleet average seat per aircraft at 207 seats. The accelerated renewal of our fleet will continue to benefit Wizz Air versus other competitors on every cost line, including on Fuel CASK even more so in the current environment where carbon-efficiency is increasingly critical.”
Budapest, Hungary-based Wizz Air serves over 150 destinations across 44 countries and operates an all Airbus A320 Family fleet of 142 aircraft, with an average age of 5.3 years. The airline has the largest order book for 250 A320neo Family aircraft, which will enable the company to reduce its environmental footprint by 30 percent by 2030. Wizz Air is the largest low-cost carrier (LCC) in Central and Eastern Europe offering over 700 routes from 45 bases. During FY 20 (ending March 31, 2020) the airline served approximately 40 million guests. Wizz Air offers superior guest service at exceptionally low fares. The company is an investment-grade credit rated airline which trades on the London Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol WIZZ.
Source: Wizz Air – RNS Number 7263G