Wizz Air suffers losses despite revenue rise

Most carriers suspended flights to Israel in October following the start of the country’s conflict with Hamas.

Wizz Air, which operates flights from Birmingham, said on Thursday that it will resume serving the Middle Eastern nation “with routes from Budapest, Sofia, Bucharest, Krakow, London and Rome to Tel Aviv” from the start of March.

The airline previously connected the UK and Israel with flights from Gatwick and Luton.

British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and easyJet have not announced plans to resume serving Israel.

It comes as Wizz Air announced a 16 per cent increase in operating losses, from 155.5 million euros (£133 million) between October and December 2022 to 180.4 million euros (£154 million) during the same period last year as it was hit by the impact of factors such as the Middle East conflict and engine inspections grounding part of its fleet.

The low cost airline did see saw revenue rise to 1.06 billion euros and reported record traffic of 15.1 million passengers in quarter three compared to 12.4 million last year.

József Váradi, Wizz Air Chief Executive Officer, said: "We continued to deliver industry-leading capacity growth during the third quarter, ahead of the anticipated grounding of aircraft in quarter four as GTF engines are removed for mandatory inspections.

"We have worked hard to adjust the schedule in line with updated capacity projections, focusing on seasonality and markets with the greatest potential to deliver stronger yields and optimal operational performance.

"We continue to actively manage the GTF engine issues to minimize the impact on our operations."

He added: "At the beginning of the quarter we faced geopolitical crises in Israel and the Middle East and have responded by cancelling affected flights to protect our passengers, employees, assets and general public.

"Despite the associated flight cancellations and redeployment of capacity at short notice, we managed operations well, delivering improved on-time performance and significantly better utilization, year-on-year.

"While a portion of our fleet will remain grounded this year, our key markets continue to grow and evolve.

"Trading at the start of Q4 has been positive. We remain committed to effective cost management, utilization of assets and productivity, all of which are paramount in the coming periods, and we are confident in our ability to manage these factors."