Wizz Air suffered a deeper loss of €453 million in the three months to June 30 against a “challenging” macroeconomic and operational backdrop.
The eastern and central European budget carrier was forced into “tactical capacity reductions” from last month due to industry supply chain disruption.
Passenger carryings grew by more than 300% year-on-year from almost 3 million to 12.1 million with revenue up from €199 million to €808.8 million.
However, costs were around 40% higher then the equivalent pre-pandemic period.
Lower ticket revenue of 12% per passenger was driven by softer demand amidst lingering restrictions from Covid-19 – particularly during April and May – plus the war in Ukraine and concerns around supply chain disruptions, the carrier disclosed.
Eight new Airbus A321neos were added during the quarter to bring the fleet size up to 157 aircraft.
Chief executive Jozsef Varadi said: ”Whilst we are rebuilding the airline with greater scale we remain very conscious of the fuel prices for the quarter were double pre-pandemic levels.
“Lingering restrictions from Covid-19 remained, particularly during April and May, while the war in Ukraine and supply chain disruptions affecting air traffic control, security and ground operation resources have impacted our utilisation.”
He predicted the airline would recover during the peak summer quarter to deliver a “material operating profit” as revenue and pricing continue to improve.
During the April to June period “we invested to re-establish our proven pre-pandemic operating model, defined by our ultra-low cost principles,” Varadi said.
“During the quarter we focused on ramping up our network – restoring capacity in our core markets just below pre-pandemic levels.
“Around 30% of our new capacity was deployed in markets where we expanded new operations during Covid-19, e.g. Italy, Albania, Abu Dhabi, new bases in UK and west Balkans.
“We’ve now adjusted our network in view of the industry supply chain disruptions, making tactical capacity reductions from June onwards to increase the agility of our operation and supply chain.
“We are encouragingly starting to see normalisation of operational disruption levels as we have lowered utilisation by circa five per cent for the summer versus F20 [full year 2020], still operating industry-leading utilisation.”
He added: ”By now we have the largest part of the summer ramp-up behind us and expect to operate around 30% higher ASKs [available seat kilometres] in the summer compared to pre-pandemic levels.“