Wizz Air Holdings PLC (AIM:WIZZ) has reported that the number of passengers booked on its flights jumped by a fifth in September, as capacity and load factors also grew.
Some 5.5 million passengers booked on September flights with Wizz Air, up 21.1% on last year, while the airline’s capacity climbed by 14.1% to just shy of 6 million.
Load factor increased from 87.1% to 92.4% meanwhile, batting off concerns that the industry could be hit if pent-up demand from the pandemic plateaus.
Though the rate of growth slowed marginally, Liberum analysts pointed out, this is unlikely to translate into any material downturn.
“The strong improvement in the load factor continued to recent trend and brought Wizz Air into line with peers on this front,” the investment bank added.
Rival Ryanair Holdings PLC (LSE:RYA) also reported 9% growth in passenger numbers during September, to 17.4 million, while load factor sat stubbornly at 94%, further calming concerns that the sector’s recovery could be short-lived.
“Fundamentally there are storm clouds gathering though,” Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Sophie Lund-Yates warned, citing growing strain on household finances from higher interest.
Travel stocks could face setbacks heading into the new year as a result, she said, with volatility likely as household spending is squeezed by increased mortgage rates when coming to renew.
Wizz Air is yet to feel the full effects of groundings due to suspected contaminants in its Pratt & Whitney-powered aircraft meanwhile, due to take place in the coming years.
How costly these reductions in capacity will be remains to be seen, with analysts most recently predicting the airline has plans in place to mitigate the effects.