Wizz Air could cut capacity by 10% in the three months to June if coronavirus continues to hit demand.
The airline, which carries 40 million passengers a year, is also adjusting its schedule between March 11 and April 2, mainly to and from destinations in Italy – the European country suffering from the largest outbreak of the virus.
“Significant reductions” have been made in overhead and discretionary spending, together with a recruitment freeze and cuts in non-essential staff travel.
More: Latest coronavirus news and updates
Coronavirus: Ryanair to cut Italy short-haul programme
EasyJet and BA start cancelling flights
The carrier is working with suppliers to reduce cost “and an effective allocation of our assets to maximise return for the company”.
The disclosures came today in a trading update for the financial year ending on March 31 by the Hungarian budget carrier.
Wizz Air is the latest airline to announce cuts due to coronavirus following low-cost rivals easyJet and Ryanair plus others such as British Airways, Lufthansa group and Tui.
Wizz Air said: “Subject to further impact on demand from Covid-19, we are considering further adjusting network capacity in the magnitude of 10% in Q1 F21 (first quarter of the 2020-21 financial year).
“Demand for air travel within Europe in March 2020 has been impacted especially in those regions that are currently more affected by Covid-19.
“The primary concern of Wizz Air is the health and wellbeing of our people and our customers.
“Wizz Air is partnering with the relevant authorities and is following the guidelines provided by the World Health Organisation and EASA to continue to ensure the safest operation.”
A multi-disciplinary task force has been established to “maintain a highly efficient operation and drive further savings to address the financial implications of Covid-19”.
The carrier added: “At this point in time it is difficult to predict the extent and the duration of the outbreak and the impact on the next financial year, however we remain confident that as the situation normalises, Wizz Air will continue its highly successful trajectory.”
Wizz Air is due to provide a pre-close year-end trading statement ahead of its full year close period that starts on April 1.
Chief executive Jozsef Varadi said: “Our ever-disciplined attitude to cost enables Wizz Air to partly offset some of the headwinds due to the Covid-19 outbreak, which have driven a temporary decline in demand and an increase in the cost of disruption as we put the well-being of passengers and crew first.
“Wizz Air’s ultra-low cost business model and our strong balance sheet and liquidity provide a solid foundation and a significant competitive advantage in the current challenging environment for airlines, making us a structural winner in the aviation sector in the long term.
“We are uniquely positioned for long-term value creation as Europe’s lowest cost, lowest emission airline and the market leader in the growing Central and Eastern European market.
“The continuous rollout of the game-changing A321neo aircraft means that we will enjoy further cost improvements, while also ensuring Wizz Air is the most environmentally friendly choice of air travel for our passengers.
“We will continue to drive profitable growth in order to achieve one of the highest profit margins in the industry.”