 On Tuesday, Wizz Air (LSE: WIZZ) reported a 160% rise in October passenger numbers, compared to the same month a year previously. It followed that up Thursday by reporting its first profit since 2019.
The fast-growing European airline revealed a €57m operating profit in the second quarter of 2021. The six months though still brought a loss of €120.9m. The turnaround is supported by total cash on the books of €1.67bn.
Chief executive József Váradi said: “Close to 10 million passengers booked a Wizz Air flight in the quarter with load factors around 80% for the quarter and reaching 84% in August as our capacity peaked at 98% of 2019 ASKs in the same month.“
The airline has carried a total of 12.5 million passengers in the first half. That’s almost twice the number carried in the equivalent 2020 period.
Wizz Air cutting ticket prices
To emphasise that the company is still in an investment and expansion phase, Váradi told us that Wizz Air is “stimulating demand with pricing.” It is also enlarging its fleet and recruiting new cabin staff. Competitor Ryanair has previously said it is cutting prices to attract more flyers too. So it sounds like European travellers should be facing a winter of cheap deals.
The Wizz Air share price barely reacted, and it’s around a third of a percent down, at the time of writing. But it had already started picking up since late October, with those passenger figures giving it a boost.
Wizz Air shares are currently up around 40% over the past 12 months. And the Wizz share price is in positive territory compared to pre-pandemic levels, up 23% over the past two years.