Wizz Air Holdings PLC (AIM:WIZZ) reported a strong increase in passenger numbers, capacity and load factor in November.
The budget airline operator said it carried 4,760,154 passengers, representing a 29.3% increase compared to November 2022, at a load factor of 88.4%.
Capacity was 28.8% higher at 5,384,679 seats.
On a rolling 12-month basis, capacity rose 27.6%, passenger numbers jumped 34.9% and the load factor increased 4.9 percentage points to 91.1%.
The company said it has decided to restart inbound flights to Chisinau, Moldova from December 14, but has suspended operations in Israel until early January 2024.
Gerald Khoo at Liberum said the acceleration in both passenger and capacity growth in November compared with the trend of recent months "surprised us".
"This comes against a tougher comparative and management had guided to capacity growth slowing," Khoo pointed out.
Retaining a 'hold' rating, Khoo added that although "there was (as usual) no commentary on unit revenues, we would see the balance of risks being to the downside with faster growth and flat load factors".
Separately, Ryanair also posted its traffic numbers, with passenger numbers rising 4% to 11.7 million passengers from 11.2 million last year with an unchanged load factor of 92%.