Wizz Air cuts profit guidance

Wizz Air lowered its underlying net profit guidance to a range of between 225 million euros and 235 million euros for the full year, from a previous forecast of 245 to 255 million euros.

“Although the current financial year is looking like a very good year for Wizz Air and we remain excited about our prospects for the next financial year, lower fuel prices continue to feed through to lower airfares, and this downward trend looks likely to continue well into 2017,” chief executive Jozsef Varadi said.

In the last two years, Europe’s biggest airlines including low-cost rivals like easyJet and Ryanair have driven fares down as they put more seats onto the market to try to take advantage of previously low oil prices and gain market share.

The cautious outlook by Wizz Air echoes an update from Flybe earlier in the week, which also cited poor weather as hindering its performance at the start of the current quarter.

Wizz Air said it expected to deliver full-year capacity growth of 20 per cent.

Unlike most of its rivals, Wizz Air did not downgrade its profit forecasts in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union last June, as the London-listed group has relatively little exposure to Britain.

The company said it had started operating 26 new routes in the third quarter, and increased the numbers of passengers carried by 20.1 per cent.