Wizz Air Holdings PLC on Monday reported higher passenger numbers for May than it carried before the pandemic.

Wizz Air carried 4.1 million passengers last month, well above the virus-reduced total of 840,445 in May 2021. Load factor in May was 84%, up from 66% in May 2021 but down from 94% in May 2019.

For the first time since the Covid pandemic, passengers numbers for May were higher than the 3.5 million passengers it carried in May 2019, before the virus caused worldwide travel restrictions, reducing Wizz Air’s passenger numbers to 126,549 in May 2020.

In the rolling 12-month period to May 2022, the Budapest-based budget airline carried 33.5 million passengers with a 80% load factor, up from 11.4 million at 64% a year ago. This was slightly below the 12-month period to May 2019, when Wizz Air carried 35.7 million passengers with a load factor of 93%.

May marks the second consecutive month Wizz Air trumped a month of pre-pandemic 2019. In April, it recorded 3.6 million passengers at a load factor of 83% compared to 3.3 million at a load factor of 92% in April 2019.

Wizz Air Holdings shares were 1.0% lower at 2,824.38 pence each in London on Monday morning.

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