City rides with Wizz Air as profits take off

Wizz Air’s shares took flight today after the low-cost airline declared record passenger numbers and profits.

The Hungarian airline, which flies between the UK and many eastern and central European countries, said there had been no slump in demand since the Brexit vote, sending its shares up almost 9% to £21.20.

Passenger numbers climbed by almost a fifth to 23.9 million and the load factor measure of how full planes are climbed by 1.9 percentage points to 90%.

Full-year profits were up 28% to €246 million (£212 million), while revenues rose by 10% to €1.6 billion.

Jozsef Varadi, Wizz Air’s chief executive, said: “Growth will continue as a top priority for us and we plan to increase capacity by around 23% and carry nearly 30 million passengers in 2018.”

Wizz Air, which has a similar cost base to market leader Ryanair, said it had made a strong start to the financial year.

Now 13 years old, Wizz Air is performing strongly despite lower fares across Europe, where airlines have been adding capacity.

Full-year profits are likely to be between €250 million and €270 million.