The budget carrier on Wednesday (27 July) recorded a deeper Q1 (three months to 30 June) loss of €452.5 million, which compares with €114.4 a year earlier. Wizz’s Q1 operational loss also grew from €108.6 million to €284.5 million.
Wizz said the setbacks came despite the transition "from a pandemic to an endemic setting", which has seen Q1 passenger numbers increase to 12.2 million and quarterly revenue recover to €808 million.
"Passengers and revenue more than quadrupled versus the same quarter last year, up almost 20% versus pre-pandemic levels, with 30% more capacity operated," said Wizz.
Nonetheless, Wizz chief executive Jozsef Varadi stressed the operating environment for airlines remained challenging, with fuel prices for the quarter "double pre-pandemic levels".
Other headwinds highlighted by Varadi included lingering Covid-19 travel restrictions, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and supply chain disruptions affecting air traffic control, security and ground operations.
Inflation is also proving an issue, with Varadi revealing how Q1 costs have increased by "around 40%" compared with pre-pandemic levels - 75% of which he said had been driven by "commodity inflation".
Ticket revenue, meanwhile, is currently tracking 12% (€4.4 per passenger) down versus pre-pandemic levels with Wizz citing "softer demand" in April and May while some countries retained Covid travel restrictions, as well as the war in Ukraine and "concerns about supply chain disruption".
In the UK, Wizz has pulled out of Doncaster Sheffield airport, and instead launched a new base at Cardiff airport. It has also added new based aircraft at Gatwick where it now has five and at Luton where it now has 11.
"Material operating profit expected’
"During the quarter, we focused on ramping up our network – restoring capacity in our core markets just below pre-pandemic levels," said Varadi. "We’ve now adjusted our network in view of the industry supply chain disruptions, making tactical capacity reductions from June onwards to increase the agility of our operation and supply chain."
Varadi said Wizz had for the most part completed its summer ramp-up and expects to put on around 30% more seats during the summer compared with pre-pandemic levels. The carrier also expects fares and load factors to improve during the summer, driving up Q2 (three months to 30 September) revenue per seat by 10% compared with pre-pandemic levels.
"We are starting to see normalisation of operational disruption levels as we have lowered utilisation by circa 5% for the summer versus F20 (full-year 2020)," Varadi continued, adding: "During Q1, we invested to re-establish our proven pre-pandemic operating model. We are seeing the results of this investment already through Q2 and we expect to deliver a material operating profit as revenue and pricing momentum continue to improve."
