Wizz Air optimistic about summer 2022

In a trading update, the budget carrier predicted a loss for the year ending 31 March 2022 of between €632 million and €652 million. It forecast an operating loss in its final quarter of 2021/22 of between €190 million and €210 million, ahead of forecasts, due to a stronger trading environment. 

The carrier, which operates 153 aircraft, said it was ramping up operations “and crewing for a busy summer flying programme”, with capacity more than 30% ahead of 2019 in the April – June 2022 quarter and more than 40% ahead of 2019 in the July – September 2022 quarter. 

“We have been encouraged by demand trends in recent weeks and given the shorter booking horizon expect the bookings for this summer to build significantly after Easter,” it said.

Wizz Air has been affected by the war in Ukraine, suspending flights there and moving capacity to other parts of Europe. It has bought 36% of its fuel needs in advance for the April to August period and has cash reserves of €1.4 billion.

Jozsef Varadi, Wizz Air chief executive, added Covid’s impact was lessening.

“The latest virus variant, Omicron, proved to be of benign nature, which helped to relax government travel restrictions across a majority of our network. Distressingly, the war in Ukraine dented demand for air travel and destabilized commodity prices across the globe. 

“Despite these developments we are starting to see recovery take shape as we move closer to the summer of 2022.” 

Full year results will be released on 8 June.