Come fly with me: Wizz Air flew 3.62m passengers last month as holidays rocket
Wizz Air said it has carried a staggering 3.62 million passengers in April, 542 per cent up on April 2021.
For the week ending 2 May, Wizz Air reported an average of 722 flights per day, ranking seventh in Europe’s top 10 aircraft operators.
The low-cost carrier beat legacy airlines such as British Airways (BA), which was eighth with an average of 674 flights per day.
Wizz’s strong performance comes after it snapped up two additional daily slots from Vueling at London Luton Airport, cementing its confidence in the travel sector’s recovery.
The added positions, the company said, will increase frequencies on existing routes to Romania and Poland, adding 167,000 seats and reinforcing Wizz Air’s role as the largest operator at London Luton Airport.
According to aviation analyst Sally Gethin, Wizz air has been cemented its predominance in the low-cost airline industry ever since the pandemic, as it “pursued an aggressive expansion strategy when all other major airlines had grounded their fleets.”
The company, who entered the pandemic being “financially stable and sustainable”, has in fact emerged as one of the few who exceeded pre-Covid levels.
“It remains a hugely ambitious airline giving its bigger European rivals a run for their money,” she told City PM
Ever since the end of restrictions, things for the airline have continued to improve, with demand increasing in all markets.
Unlike its rivals, Wizz Air was not hit by the Covid-induced staff shortages which have plagued other carriers such as BA or easyJet.
“We haven’t seen an increase in the number of infected employees and we haven’t had to cancel any flights,” Wizz Air UK’s managing director Marion Geoffroy told City PM last month.
“But we have to be very humble with the crisis because it gets better and then it gets worse again.”
Looking to the summer months, Wizz Air has over 5.6 million seats in total for the peak season and has announced new routes across its network.