Wizz Air December Traffic Rises, Capacity Drops

European low-cost carrier Wizz Air (LON: WIZZ) reported a rise in passenger numbers for December 2024 despite a year-on-year drop in seat capacity.

The airline revealed it carried 5.06 million passengers during the month, a 1.9% increase compared to 4.96 million in December 2023.

However, seat capacity decreased by 3.1% year-on-year to 5.85 million seats, reflecting adjustments in fleet utilisation. In addition, Wizz Air has been forced to ground dozens of its planes due to engine issues.

The airline projects a continued grounding of around 40 Airbus A320NEO family aircraft through F26.

Despite the reduced capacity, the load factor—a measure of how full flights were—rose to 86.5%, up 4.3 percentage points from 82.1% in December 2023.

Wizz Air credited the improvement to a positive yield environment and robust booking trends carried over from November.

“Early indications for our Q4 period, ending March 2025, remain positive, with bookings currently running ahead by over 2ppts vs this time last year,” stated the company.

Earlier this week, Wizz Air announced a commercial support agreement with Pratt & Whitney regarding the continued grounding of aircraft.

The commercial support from Pratt & Whitney extends through the end of calendar year 2026. It includes operational support and a compensation package covering the company's direct costs associated with grounded aircraft or aircraft expected to be grounded.