Wizz Air has seen a “normalisation” of disruption levels this summer after trimming its originally planned capacity.
The Hungary-based airline said that its passenger numbers (12.2 million) and revenue (€809 million) had both risen by around 20 per cent for the quarter to the end of June, compared with the same period in 2019.
These increases came despite Wizz deciding to reduce planned capacity by five per cent over the summer.
Jozsef Varadi, Wizz Air’s CEO, said: “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.
“We are encouragingly starting to see normalisation of operational disruption levels as we have lowered utilisation.”
This reduced disruption to flight schedules across Europe in recent weeks was also noted by easyJet in its trading update earlier this week.
Despite its growth, Wizz Air saw its operating loss for the April-June quarter rise to €284.5 million, up from €108.6 million a year ago, mainly due to the impact of higher fuel costs.
“Fuel prices for the quarter were double pre-pandemic levels,” explained Varadi. “Lingering restrictions from Covid-19 remained, particularly during April and May, while the war in Ukraine and supply chain disruptions affecting air traffic control, security and ground operation resources have impacted our utilisation.”
Wizz Air continued to make more revenue through ancillary sales (€416.8 million) than airfares (€399 million), despite the average ancillary revenue per passenger failing by 9 per cent year-on-year to €34.20.