Wizz Air Holdings PLC (LON: WIZZ) have updated the market on a new CFO appointment on Thursday morning.
Wizz Air have seen a success in what has been a tough year for the airline industry. The firm saw its passenger numbers climb 22% in May, which would have pleased shareholders.
The Hungarian airline flew 3,470,889 passengers in May, a 22.4% rise compared to the 2,836,380 figure from the same month a year prior.
Additionally, the firm announced another update to its passenger numbers in November alongside rival Ryanair Holdings plc (LON: RYA).
Wizz Air reported a November capacity increase of 27% to 3.2 million from 2.6 million, while load factor rose 92.8% to 91.2%.
Available seat kilometres was up by 21% to 5.2 million from 4.3 million and revenue passenger kilometres grew by 4.9 million from 3.9 million in November 2018.
After announcing earlier this week that the firm would be expanding operations into Armenia, Wizz Air have made another swift move in todays appointment.
Jouirk Hooghe will be appointed as chief financial officer, with effect from February 1.
He will replaced Iain Weatherall. After two years in the CFO role, Weatherall will move to the newly created position within Wizz Air of chief investment officer.
Hooghe will be joining from Adecco Group AG (SWX: ADEN) – where he has been senior vice president for strategy, finance and accounting since 2018.
“Through these appointments we are enhancing our leadership capacity and capability in our Finance function. The appointments of the executive vice president and group CFO and the chief investment officer allow us to further refine our subsidiary structure, to up our corporate finance activities and at the same time to bring further focus on our aircraft delivery program and associated financing requirements,” said Chief Executive Officer Jozsef Varadi.
Certainly, Wizz Air have performed relatively well in a tough industry. Whilst the notable headlines have been the collapse of Thomas Cook (LON:TCG) in September, Wizz Air shareholders can remain optimistic for 2020.
Shares in Wizz Air were left in green following the appointment, and trade at 3,969p. (+0.050%). 19/12/19 10:53BST.
