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Enterprise

Wizz Air shares sink as it halves profit outlook and reports quarterly loss

Shares in the low-cost carrier plunged nearly 12 per cent in early trading on the back of the trading update.

Passengers getting on a Wizz Air plane(Image: PA)

Wizz Air has dramatically reduced its annual profit outlook, despite witnessing its quarterly losses fall by over half amidst an all-time high in passenger numbers. Shares plummeted on this update, dropping close to 12% during early trading hours.

The Hungarian airline disclosed a €75.9m (£63.6m) loss for the quarter ending 31 December, which is approximately 58% less than the same period a year earlier, as reported by .

Revenue increased by 10.5%, reaching €1.18bn, bolstered by unprecedented quarterly passenger figures of 15.5 million and elevated ticket prices.

Revenues from passenger tickets rose 13% to €626.2m.

However, Wizz Air had to revise its full-year net income forecast downwards from the initial range of €350-€450m to a new bracket of €250-€300m.

Wizz Air CEO Jozsef Varadi attributed the higher demand not correlating with profit levels to "cost headwinds" and a substantial €160m negative impact due to foreign exchange movements.

"While a non-cash item, it has the potential to introduce significant volatility to our reported profitability," said Varadi.

This represents yet another subpar performance report for the budget airline, which has been unable to fully exploit the surge in travel demand due to supply chain challenges and conflicts in the Middle East.