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Wizz Air profits rise by nearly 15%

Passengers flying with Wizz Air jumped by a quarter to 15.6 million in the first half of the year.

Total revenues rose by 24.8% to €1.1 billion delivering a 14.5% rise in year-on-year pre-tax profits to €301 million.

A breakdown of the record figures for the six months to September 30 shows that ticket revenue increased 21.7% to €681 million and ancillary income was up by 31.3% to €462.1 million.

The central and eastern European budget carrier estimates that capacity will rise around by about 23% in the full financial year with its annual profit guidance raised to between €265 million-€280 million against the previous estimate of €250 million-€270 million.

Chief executive József Váradi said the half year results were ahead of expectations with “robust trading” across all markets.

“Our network, routes and bases continued to expand rapidly to meet the demand from our core Central and Eastern European markets, highlighting the continued significant growth opportunity for the company in the region,” he said.

The airline announced 57 new routes in the six month period, taking the network up to more than 550 routes from 28 bases in 43 countries.

Six Airbus A321ceo and one A320ceo aircraft were added while an additional order was made for 10 A321ceos to be delivered in 2018 and 2019.

“Customer satisfaction and innovation remains at the forefront of our strategy and in the first half we announced the removal of our ‘paid for’ cabin bag policy and introduced the ‘fare-lock’ and ‘Flexible Partner’ products,” Váradi said.

“We also continue to prepare the company for the significant planned growth ahead,” he added, pointing to the appointment announced in July of former Air New Zealand chief strategy officer as deputy CEO along with the internal promotions of Iain Wetherall to chief financial officer and Heiko Holm to chief technical officer.

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