Wizz Air carries almost 5 million passengers in December
- Wizz Air carried 4.96 million passengers last month, despite pressure on living costs
- The Hungarian airline's total seat capacity increased by approximately 1.1 million to 6.04 million
- Under CEO Joszef Varadi, Wizz Air plans to carry 170 million customers annually by 2030
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Wizz Air transported almost 5 million people in December as the low-cost carrier benefited from its ambitious expansion plans.
The Hungarian airline carried 4.96 million passengers last month, up from 4.18 million in December 2022, despite widespread cost-of-living pressures hitting Europe and conflict in the Middle East.
While the group's occupancy rate – the share of available seats occupied by customers – fell by 2.4 percentage points to 82.1 percent, total seat capacity increased by approximately 1.1 million to 6.04 million.
Flying high: Wizz Air carried 4.96 million passengers last month, up from 4.18 million in December 2022, despite widespread cost-of-living pressures hitting Europe
It continued to launch more routes or add additional aircraft to its existing bases in 2023, especially in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.
Wizz Air welcomed its 100 millionth passenger in Poland last month after adding a 12th aircraft to its base at Warsaw Chopin Airport over the summer.
Meanwhile, Wizz Air-Abu Dhabi, a joint venture with UAE-based holding company ADQ, achieved a record year after doubling its number of flights to 15,000 and carrying more than 3 million people.
For the whole of 2023, Wizz Air's passenger numbers rose by almost a third to 60.3 million, while its load factor rose by 4.1 percentage points to 90.8 percent.
Ruth Griffin, leisure partner at Gowling WLG, said: 'Shareholders will be assured of the company's position as the cost of living crisis continues, encouraging passengers to seek affordable travel options, and the opening of new global routes expands the airline's scope and reach .”
At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Wizz Air bought up cheap landing slots in the hope of capturing a larger share of the aviation market once travel restrictions began to ease.
Under CEO and founder Joszef Varadi, the London-listed airline aims to have more than 500 aircraft in its fleet by 2030 and transport 170 million customers annually.
Varadi could receive a £100m bonus if the company's share price reaches £120 sometime before 2028 – which would give it a market value of £12bn.
Wizz Air shares were 4.3 per cent lower at £21.21 on Wednesday afternoon and have fallen by around 26 per cent in the past six months.
Fellow budget airline Ryanair also announced on Wednesday that it carried 12.5 million passengers in December, 9 percent more than last year, despite canceling hundreds of flights to the Middle East due to the war between Israel and Hamas.
The Irish airline warned that revenues would be negatively affected in the short term as numerous travel websites, including Kiwi, Kayak and Booking.com, would no longer sell their flights.
Ryanair suggested its removal could be linked to a recent Irish High Court ruling banning software tool Flightbox from 'screen scraping' its website for online travel agencies.