Wizz Air Closes Financial Year with Increased Loss

Low-cost airline Wizz Air closed the 2021/2022 financial year ending March this year with a loss of EUR 642.5 million, up from EUR 576 million in the previous year, while its revenue more than doubled to EUR 1.66 billion from EUR 739 million in the previous year, according to a report published on the company's website.

Wizz Air Group Chief Executive Officer József Váradi commented on the results as saying that “our investments in staffing, our fleet and diversifying the network enabled us to recover capacity faster and we operated more than twice as many ASKs compared to F21, while carrying 27.1 million passengers, compared to 10.2m in F21. The load factor improved to 78%, significantly ahead of the 64% seen in F21. Whereas F22 passenger numbers and asset utilization remained well below pre-Covid levels resulting in a reported net loss of EUR 642.5 million for F22, the reported loss in the fourth quarter was ahead of our guidance driven by an improving trading environment. At the end of F22, our cash and cash equivalents position continued to be very strong and we finished the year with a cash position of EUR 1,379 million. Equally, as we close F22, we are able to confirm our investment grade balance sheet (Baa3 by Moody's and BBB- by Fitch). We believe we have now entered into an endemic phase of COVID-19 and have managed the trading impact from the war in Ukraine."

Commenting on the outlook for the company, József Váradi added that “at the start of F23, we stand ready to deliver our largest ever summer flying programme and the fastest growth in the industry, enabled by more than 6,000 colleagues across the business. Our planned capacity growth for the first two quarters of F23 is over 30 and 40%, respectively, and for the year we expect even stronger growth versus F20. This will be enabled by a fleet of 182 aircraft by the end of the fiscal year, with one of the highest renewal rates in the industry at more than 50% neo aircraft, an average fleet age of 4.1 years and an average seat count of 221, driving a strong and widening competitive advantage on cost and environmental sustainability."