Wizz Air carried 5.1m passengers in May despite engine issues dragging on capacity
Wizz Air carried 5.1m passengers in May ahead of a busy summer but said capacity continued to be impacted by engine-related groundings.
The figure marked a 2.1 per cent rise year-on-year and brings the Hungarian airline’s rolling 12 month total to 68.9m.
Load factor, which measures the proportion of seats filled, came in at 91 per cent, up marginally on last year’s 90.2 per cent.
The announcement comes at the start of what is expected to be one of the busiest summer’s of travel demand ever. Desire for travel has refused to tail off after last year, when demand rebounded dramatically from Covid-era lows.
Unlike rivals Easyjet and Ryanair, Wizz Air has faced a number of unique issues which has impacted the share price despite strong passenger figures.
Contaminated powdered metal found in the airline’s Pratt and Whitney-manufactured geared turbofan (GTF) engines has seen large swathes of its fleet grounded in the last year.
The impact was such that Wizz was forced to axe capacity by 10 per cent last year.
Wars in the Middle East and Ukraine have also disproportionately impacted Wizz, which is the largest inbound flying carrier to both regions.
“Too many black swans,” its chief executive József Váradi said, in an interview with CityAM on Thursday.
Shares are down over 13 per cent in the last 12 months. That’s despite Wizz Air swinging to a £310.6m profit last year on record passenger numbers of 62m, an increase of nearly a quarter year-on-year.
If the low-cost carrier’s share price rises to £120 before 2028, Váradi will net a £100m bonus as part of an incentive scheme.