Low-cost carrier Wizz Air has delivered strong full-year results, with pre-tax profit up 4.5 per cent to €300m, bucking a recent trend of bad news in the airline industry.
Chief executive Jozsef Varadi said Wizz saw a “very solid performance” and guided that net profit would rise from €292m to between €320m and €350m in the 2019-20 financial year.
But the company also said that costs would rise 2 per cent next year, with revenue unit growth in the low single digits.
Mr Varadi said: “Higher fuel prices are supporting a stronger fare environment and we expect these macro conditions to provide Wizz Air with market share opportunities as weaker carriers withdraw unprofitable capacity.”
Revenue for the year to March 31 2019 came in slightly below analysts’ consensus estimates, up 20 per cent to €2.3bn.
Revenue per available seat kilometre (ASK), a standard industry unit, was up 2.3 per cent while cost per ASK excluding fuel was down 0.9 per cent. Including fuel, which stood at high levels through most of 2018, cost per ASK went up 4.9 per cent.
Other airlines have delivered disappointing results in recent weeks, blaming higher oil prices, Brexit-related uncertainty, overcapacity in the market and the move of Easter out of the financial year.
