- Passengers numbers surge on post-Covid bounce
- Flights 84.2% full
- Shares have lost 40% since the start of the year
Amid half-term airport chaos, Wizz Air (WIZZ) continues to see demand surge for cheap flights to sunshine destinations after last year’s lockdowns.
Wizz, which claims to be Europe’s fastest growing budget airline, saw passenger numbers increase almost five-fold in May 2022 versus May 2021, with load factor creeping back towards past 90%-plus rates.
| Wizz Air Passengers stats | |||||
| May 2022 | May 2021 | Change | May 2019 | Change | |
| Capacity | 4,889,505.00 | 1,272,357.00 | 284.3% | 3,697,170.00 | 32.2% |
| Passengers | 4,117,271.00 | 840,445.00 | 389.9% | 3,470,889.00 | 18.6% |
| Load factor | 84.2% | 66.1% | 18.2% | 93.9% | -9.7% |
| Source: Wizz Air | |||||
The airline carried 4,117,271 passengers, representing a 390% increase compared to May 2021, at a load factor of 84.2%. May 2021’s load factor, essentially the measure of how full flights are, was 66.1% with Covid throwing the industry into disarray.
On a rolling 12 months basis, Wizz Air saw a 194.4% increase in passengers carried to 33.5 million and a rise in the load factor to 80.3% from 63.8% a year earlier.
PRE-PANDEMIC GROWTH
More importantly, the airline’s passenger data shows robust improvement on 2019 figures, before the pandemic. May 2022 passenger numbers were 18.2% up on May 2019, although even faster capacity growth means the airline still has work to do to match past load factor stats.
Wizz Air shares have lost 40% so far in 2022 and traded 1.7% lower on Monday at £28.06.
