The Budapest-based airline made a group operating profit of €304.5 million for the six months until the end of September – up by 21.3% on the same period in 2016.

Wizz increased passenger numbers by 25% to 15.6 million, while revenue also rose by 24.8% to €1.15 billion during the half-year.

The airline is going through a major period of expansion and opened new bases at Luton and Varna in Bulgaria during the six-month period. Overall, Wizz added 57 new routes to its network taking its total to more than 550.

The improved results mean that Wizz now expects to make a net profit of up to €280 million for the financial year ending in March 2018 – the previous estimate was a profit of up to €270 million.

Jozsef Varadi, Wizz Air’s chief executive said the results were “ahead of expectations with robust trading across all of our markets”.

“Our network, routes and bases continued to expand rapidly to meet the demand from our core Central and Eastern European markets, highlighting the continued significant growth opportunity for the company in the region.

“We have continued to grow our fleet, with the addition of six Airbus A321ceo and one A320ceo aircraft as well as strengthening our delivery stream with an additional order for 10 A321ceo to be delivered in 2018 and 2019.”

Wizz currently has a fleet of 86 aircraft – 64 Airbus A320s and 22 Airbus A321s.