Wizz Air Holdings (LON:WIZZ) have seen their shares in green on Wednesday, as the firm lifted its full year profit guidance.
In the quarterly update, Wizz Air said that they had seen passenger numbers climb across its financial quarter, which led shares to jump 1.58%.
Shares in Wizz Air trade at 4,174p (+1.56%). 29/1/20 10:53BST.
In the three months to December 31, revenue was 25% higher year-on-year at €637.3 million from €511.3 million.
Ticket revenue alone was 16% higher at €336.3 million, which represents significant progress for the budget airline, in an industry which has seen hardship.
Notably, the firm also swung to a quarterly pretax profit of €22.4 million from a €21.2 million loss one year ago.
The swing follows a successive chain of strong results for Wizz Air having seen their passenger numbers rise over the last few months and the resilient nature of the firm should please shareholders.
Passengers carried also climbed 23% year on year and totaled 10 million in the third quarter, whilst load factor edged 1.1 percentage points higher to 92.5%.
József Váradi, Wizz Air Chief Executive said:
“Wizz Air again reports a record financial performance in the third quarter as our low-fare, low-cost business model delivered a net profit of €21.4 million compared to a broadly breakeven operational outcome in the same period last year. We have delivered unit cost reduction ahead of expectations with ex-fuel CASK improving 5.6% year-on-year. Whilst growing passenger volumes by an industry leading 23% in the third quarter, we have achieved both higher load factors and improved yields. In short, it has been another quarter of significant achievement.
Wizz Air is the lowest cost, lowest emission airline in Europe and the largest airline in the growing CEE market, a market that continues to show exciting growth dynamics. We believe that the company is uniquely positioned for long term value creation. We will continue to enhance our market-leading positions with the roll out of the game-changing, attractively priced and financed A321 neo aircraft which will enable Wizz Air to continue widening our cost advantage over our competitors, providing passengers with the reassurance that they are making the right choice to fly with Wizz Air as we have the lowest impact on the environment of any airline.”
The company previously had guided net profit between €335 million and €350 million for the current financial year, however the fact that this has been raised will certainly appease shareholder interest.
Speaking further on the results and future plans, the chief executive further commented:
“In the third quarter, Wizz Air announced its first airline to be established outside of Europe in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE. Wizz Air Abu Dhabi will be an incremental path of growth for Wizz Air, built on our successful ultra-low cost business model, bringing affordable travel to ever more customers. We believe the new airline which is expected to be operational in the second half of 2020 has the potential to be a significant player in the region operating over 50 aircraft within ten years.”
“As previously announced at our H1 results, Wizz Air has reinvested some of its outperformance of the first half in the third quarter, and will grow even faster in the fourth quarter, delivering an industry leading growth rate of 24%. The Company will benefit from this additional growth in the next financial year as new routes will be in place ahead of the all-important summer period. Wizz Air also confirms that the current trading conditions continue to be favourable with a relatively benign competitive environment, stable fuel prices and a positive yield environment. Despite our additional investment in growth in the fourth quarter, the Company is today raising its net profits guidance to a range of between €350m to €355m for the full year.”
Wizz Air see steady growth
In November, the airline reported that it had seen its November passenger figures rise, which was impressive as it managed steady growth across the last few months.
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.
On a rolling annual basis, capacity is up 15% to 41.8 million, total passengers up by 17% to 39.1 million with load factor up 1.3 percentage points to 93.6%.
During November, the Hungarian carrier added 11 new routes, which included 4 in Poland, 2 in Ukraine and 1 in the UK.
The form was further continued in December, where passenger numbers further increased.
The budget airline saw a capacity increase of 24% to 3.7 million from 3.0 million a year before, while passengers increased by 25% to 3.3 million from 2.7 million.
On a rolling annual factor, Wizz Air saw their capacity ruse by 16% to 42.5 million, passengers 18% to 39.8 million and load factor from 93.6% to 92.4%.
Additionally, the available seat kilometres grew by 18% to 69.4 million, and revenue passenger kilometres by 20% to 65.2 million.
The results from today’s update are impressive, as this has been reflected in Wizz Air’s stock price movement.
