European budget airline Wizz Air (WIZZ) anticipates a lower than expected loss for its fourth quarter as a recovery in the airline industry begins to ‘take shape’.
In a trading update on Thursday the company also said that demand trends have been encouraging in the recent weeks and summer bookings were likely to improve significantly after Easter, sending its shares more than 7% higher.
The shares, which had lost a third of their value this year, rallied to £30.96, a six-week high.
The low-cost airline forecast an operating loss of between €210 million and €190 million for the quarter. This is ahead of the €213.6 million loss estimated when it reported third-quarter results in January. Still, Wizz Air anticipates a net loss of between €652 million and €632 million for the financial year to 31 March 2022.
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‘In full year 2022 the aviation industry continued to be impacted by Covid-19. The latest virus variant, Omicron, proved to be of benign nature, which helped to relax government travel restrictions across a majority of our network,’ said Wizz Air.
‘Distressingly, the war in Ukraine dented demand for air travel and destabilised commodity prices across the globe,’ said József Váradi, Wizz Air chief executive. But the airline’s boss added that ‘we are starting to see recovery take shape as we move closer to the summer of 2022.’
‘Looking into full year March 2023 from a financial perspective, the statement notes that the focus will be on maximising revenue and returning to pre-Covid productivity, which will result in improved profitability,’ said broker Davy.
Wizz Air is to release its annual results on 8 June 2022.
