Wizz Air gains Champions League final passenger boost

Wizz Air carryings in May rose by a quarter with an improved load factor as dozens of special flights were operated to the UEFA Champions League final.

The airline flew 7.13 million passengers last month, an increase of 26% year on year, with capacity rising 25.4% to 7.77 million seats.

This marked an acceleration into the summer season from the 22% growth in passengers reported for April.

The load factor in May was 91.7%, up 0.5 percentage points over the same month last year.

Wizz Air operated 77 incremental flights for football fans from London and Paris for the UEFA Champions League final between Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain in Budapest across the last three days of the month, achieving a 99.9% load factor.

The eastern and central European budget airline resumed operations to Tel Aviv from Luton Airport and 10 other points in Europe on May 28 after flights to Israel were suspended on the outbreak of the conflict in the Middle East at the end of February.

The airline plans further expansion in Italy by basing an 11th aircraft at Milan Malpensa Airport from September 14, a third at Naples from December 14 and a fourth at Catania on the same day.

The airline’s fleet in Italy has expanded from 29 aircraft last summer to 41 this year across seven bases.

The growth aims to underline its position as Italy’s second largest carrier.

A distribution deal was agreed last month with travel technology provider Atlas. 

The agreement gives Atlas’ corporate travel partners access to Wizz Air’s content via an API connection.

This follows similar deals with Kyte and Travelfusion, which allows Wizz Air to distribute its content via business travel booking channels.

The May figures gave the carrier a rolling annual total of more than 6.1 million passengers.