Low-Cost Airlines Rocket This Season

Wizz Air carried a quarter more passengers in July, while Ryanair’s passenger numbers hit a new high for the third consecutive month – reports Világgazdaság.

European low-cost airlines have wheeled on the peak tourist season with busy passenger traffic, with both Wizz Air and Ryanair reporting strong increase in numbers in July and a particularly high load factor on Wednesday.

Hungarian-backed Wizz Air flew more than six million passengers last month, up 27 percent compared to the previous year. At the same time,

the load factor of the airline continued to improve, up 5.1 basis points year-on-year to 94.9 percent.

Growth of number of passengers continues to outpace capacity growth, with the latter up by 20% since July 2022. At full capacity, the low-cost carrier can now seat 6.36 million passengers.

The latest traffic figures from its Irish rival show similarly strong demand.

Ryanair attracted 18.7 million travelers in July, an increase of 11 percent.

The airline had its strongest month ever, with passenger traffic reaching a new record for the third consecutive month.

Only 4 percent of seats on flights departing during the period were empty at the peak of the summer tourist season, the same as a year earlier. The load factor improved by 1 percentage point compared to June, despite 800 flights having been canceled last month due to a strike by airline workers.

Being Europe’s busiest airline,

Ryanair expects to carry 183.5 million passengers in the financial year to the end of March next year, of which 69.1 million in the first four months.

Last week, the Irish airline reported a net profit of €663 million for the first financial quarter, surpassing its pre-pandemic peak year of 2019, while Wizz Air’s flash report on its April-June performance will be published today. EasyJet’s report could also be a good sign for Wizz Air, as the British low-cost carrier posted its best ever third quarter results and expects record profits for the July-September period due to a high booking level.

Featured image: Facebook/Wizz Air