Wizz Air Holdings PLC on Thursday reported a big swing back to profit in the first quarter of its financial year, though its stock fell.

Shares in the Budapest-based budget airline were down 5.4% at 2,235.00 pence early Thursday in London. They hit a low of 2,179.00p earlier. The stock is down 4.1% over the past 12 months.

Wizz swung to a €67.1 million pretax profit in the three months that ended June 30 from a €451.1 million loss a year before. Operating profit was €79.9 million, swung from a €284.5 million loss, as total revenue jumped by 52% to €1.24 billion from €808.8 million. While staff costs were up 38% and airport charges up 26%, fuel costs were down 13%, it said.

Wizz carried 15.3 million passengers during the recent three months, up 25% from 12.2 million a year before. Load factor was 91.2%, up from 84.7%.

Looking ahead, Wizz said it expects load factor to improve to 94% in the second quarter. For all of the financial year ending March 31 next year, it expects a load factor above 90%.

Wizz kept unchanged its guidance of annual net profit of €350 million to €450 million. This compares to a net loss of €535.1 million in financial 2023 and a €61.1 million profit in the first quarter.

‘Summer is going well operationally and from a revenue perspective,’ said Chief Executive Jozsef Varadi, adding: ‘We continue to observe positive trading in the second quarter with [revenue per available seat kilometres] trending higher year-on-year on the back of low double digit percentage increased ticket revenue and a higher load factor.’

Peel Hunt said the quarterly results were slightly below its own forecasts due to higher-than-expected costs. However, the broker pointed to the rising load factor, saying slower capacity growth will improve yields. It retained a ’buy’ rating on Wizz shares.

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