Wizz Air monthly carryings fell at the start of the summer peak amid the ongoing grounding of aircraft due to aircraft engine recalls.
July numbers fell by 1.4% year-on-year to 5.9 million passengers.
Fleet capacity operated during the month was down 0.3% year-on-year, due to the impact of engine-related groundings of Airbus A321neos. The load factor of 93.8% compared with 94.9% in July last year.
Wizz Air said it was also hit by the worldwide system outages on July 19 caused by an external provider, disrupting around 1% of its scheduled flights in the month.
The Hungarian budget carrier disclosed on Thursday that it was forced to ground 46 of its Airbus fleet in the three months to June due to the need to carry out inspections on Pratt & Whitney GTF engines
By contrast, rival low fares airline Ryanair surged ahead last month with an 8% rise in passenger numbers to 20.2 million.
Europe’s largest airline achieved the increase despite cancelling more than 650 flights in July due to air traffic control delays.
Ryanair operated more than 110,500 flights during the month with the load factor of 96%, the same as in July 2023.
The performance saw Ryanair’s rolling total of passengers up 9% to 190.4 million at the end of July.