Wizz Air returns to profit and prepares for GTF groundings

Wizz Air turned around a HY1 loss into a solid profit, reporting a net profit for March-September of €400.7 million. Its Q2 profit was up five times on that of the same period. In the coming months, the Geared Turbofan issues will result in 45 aircraft on ground, but Wizz is taking mitigating actions to reduce the impact.

The €400.7 million net profit for HY1 for FY24 compares to €-389.7 million last year

. Revenues improved to €3.052 billion, up from €2.194 billion. Of this, €1.762 billion came from passenger revenues (2022: €1.182 billion) and €1.290 billion from ancillary revenues (€1.012 billion). The airline carried 33 million passengers, up 25 percent year on year and 49 percent more than in its pre-pandemic year FY20. Capacity was up 27 percent year on year. Revenues per available seat kilometer were up 0.6 percent to €4.91 cents.

Expenses increased by twelve percent to €2.529 billion, with all segments up except fuel, which was six percent lower at €966.4 million. The operating profit grew by a staggering 920 percent to €522.9 million from €69 million last year. EBITDA was €878.1 million, up from €217.8 million, with a margin of 28.8 percent. Cash and cash equivalents stood at €1.8 billion by the end of September, net debt at €3.9 billion.