Wizz Air passengers still down in July, network expansions announced

Wizz Air reported a 25.7% fall in its capacity year-on-year in July, to 3.02 million seats, as passenger numbers were down 53% on the prior year, at 1.82 million.

The FTSE 250 low-cost airline said that made for a load factor of 60.5% for the month, down 35.1 percentage points compared to July 2019.

On a rolling 12-month basis, capacity was down 18.8% at 31.96 million seats and passengers slid 22.9% to 28.32 million, with the rolling 12-month load factor off 4.6 percentage points at 88.6%.

Despite the ongoing impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, Wizz said it still grew its network in July, with the launch of Wizz Air Abu Dhabi - a national airline of the United Arab Emirates - which will start operations on 1 October.

It also expanded its route network, with the announcement of 26 new routes from its bases in Italy, Romania, Russia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

The fleet was widened with the addition of two new Airbus A320neo aircraft, taking the fleet to 126.

Wizz Air also noted that it was operating at what it claimed was the lowest carbon dioxide emissions per passenger kilometre among “all competitor airlines”, with 59.5 grams per passenger kilometre for the rolling 12 months to 31 July.

For the month of July, emissions in grams per passenger kilometre were 42.7% higher due to the drop in load factor, while total carbon dioxide emissions in tonnes decreased in line with capacity.

At 1000 BST, shares in Wizz Air were up 3.59% at 3,290p.