Wizz Air conserves cash in Q2, launches 200 new routes

Wizz Air Holdings saw its flights come to a near standstill in the second quarter, but managed to conserve cash and by period end had resumed a majority of flights and launched 200 new routes.

The Central and Eastern-European focused budget airline reported a 93.2% drop in the number of passengers carried over the three months to 30 June to reach 707,184.

That resulted in a 86.9% drop in revenues to €90.8m and an underlying net loss of €56.7m, against €72.4m of profits in the comparable year ago period.

Nonetheless, the company's boss, József Váradi, highlighted how the firm's total cash balance had dipped just 3% to £1,587.9m while by end June the company was operating at near 70% capacity versus an average of 11.5% in the first quarter.

"This gives Wizz Air important operational momentum going into the summer season," he said.

On a statutory basis, the net loss for the second quarter amounted to €108.0m, against €72.4m of profits a year earlier.

Load factor meanwhile was at 55.5% over the quarter, down from 93.7%, meaning that what planes did remain in the air were just over half full.

Tellingly, costs per available seat kilometre, excluding fuel, more than doubled to 6.81 euro cents, although revenues per available seat kilometre increased 13.6% to 4.36 cents.

Making the most of a bad situation, the carrier launched 200 new routes during the quarter, opening new bases in Albania, Cyprus, Italy, Ukraine, Germany, Romania and Russia.

It also launched a Cabin Crew-to-Captain programme to allow aspiring Wizz Air cabin crew to train as pilots.

A total of 22 aircraft were re-allocated across its network, and two brand new A321-neo were scheduled to begin plying a new route to Abu Dhabi starting from 1 October.

As of 0821 BST, shares of Wizz Air were jumping 3.77% to 3,526.0p.