The budget carrier has lowered its net profit guidance for the year ended March 31 from the range €245-€255 million to a new figure of €225-€235 million. The airline’s chief executive Jozsef Varadi said the unusually severe weather meant it was “prudent to trim the company’s guidance” for the full year.

The airline estimated the immediate cost of weather disruption during the third quarter was €5 million, plus ‘an adverse macro effect’ of another €5 million and a weaker fare environment that cost it €10 million when it lowered fares to encourage sales.

For the three months to the end of 2016, the carrier reported an underlying after tax profit of €13.5 million, a fall of 21.5%. Underlying after tax margin fell 1.6 percentage points to 3.9%. During the third quarter, the airline carried 5.7 million passengers - one million more than the same period the previous year despite the weather issues. The increase was partly due to the start of 26 new routes during the quarter.

The carrier plans to grow capacity by between 18 and 20% in 2017, with a ‘modest improvement’ in load factors predicted. It will open its 27th base in Varna on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast in July. Wizz Air has also been awarded a four-year concession by the Hungarian government to connect the country to Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo, Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina. Flights are on sale and start operating in April 2017.

Wizz Air has a current fleet of 74 aircraft. The airline also said it had finance deals in place to grow the fleet to 100 Airbus A320 and A321s by next year.