Record Numbers: Wizz Air Served Over 60 Million Passengers Last Year

On Thursday, January 25, Wizz Air Holdings announced the financial results for the third quarter of last year. This quarter was for the months of October, November, and December. Wizz Air, which is one of the fastest-growing low-cost airlines in the world, experienced record numbers of passengers in the third quarter of last year and a record number of travelers during the complete year of 2023.

Third-quarter financial results

The Budapest, Hungary-based carrier revealed that from October through the end of the year, the airline reached a record amount of traffic. Wizz Air registered 15.1 million passengers in the third quarter. This was nearly 3 million more passengers, and a 22.1% change, than the third quarter of 2022, when the airline registered just 12.4 million passengers. This brought the airline’s yearly number of passengers to 60.3 million passengers.

Photo: Markus Mainka | Shutterstock

In the third quarter of 2023, Wizz Air also registered a total revenue of over a billion Euros. The airline reached a total revenue of 1.064 billion Euros ($1.154 billion). This was a 16.8% increase in revenue compared to the third quarter of 2022. This brought the airline’s total cash balance to 1.7 billion Euros ($1.8 billion).

However, the airline still reached an operating loss during the quarter. Wizz Air recorded a 180.4 million Euro ($195.6 million) operating loss, a 16% increase compared to 2022. Wizz Air also registered a 105.4 million Euro ($114.2 million) loss during this period. This was a large decrease from the 33.5 million Euro ($36.3 million) profit the airline registered in the third quarter of 2022. The Chief Executive Officer of Wizz Air, József Váradi, spoke about the financial results. He stated,

“While financial performance in the last quarter was materially affected by the suspension and reallocation of Israel capacity, we maintain our expectations for F24 net income, which are underpinned by positive trading at the start of Q4, reduced capacity in the same period, and OEM compensation for the grounded aircraft. Based on our assessment of the overall impact of mandatory engine inspections, we are confident that our long-term growth plans of operating a fleet of 500 aircraft by the end of the decade remain unaffected.”

Other operational metrics

In addition to releasing various financial results, Wizz Air published operational metrics and other updates on the airline’s future outlook. The airline announced it increased its available seat per kilometer (ASK) by nearly 27%. It also increased its load factor to 87.6%, up from the 87.3% it recorded in the third quarter of last year.

Photo: Cristi Croitoru | Shutterstock

Wizz recorded a flight completion rate of 99.3%, the same as the airline recorded last year. It also improved its on-time performance to 72.2% – last year, it was only 62.3%. These numbers also consider the cancelation of Israeli flights that began at the beginning of the quarter. The low-cost carrier intends to restart its operations in Israel in early March. This will include routes from Budapest, Sofia, Bucharest, Kraków, London, and Rome, and will fly to Tel Aviv.

The airline is also affected by the engine removals on the Airbus A321 family of aircraft. Pratt & Whitney, the engine supplier, announced a recall and inspection of over 1,000 engines. These inspections are set to take over 60 days per plane to repair the defects. Wizz Air predicts that around 40 aircraft will be grounded due to this issue – as of January 24, the airline has 33 grounded aircraft. Wizz has also already received OEM compensation for affected losses during the third quarter.