Wizz Air Holdings PLC (AIM:WIZZ) said December saw it carry 4.96 million passengers, representing an 18.8% increase compared to December 2022, but the planes were less full than at year ago, with a load factor of 82.1%.
Analysts said this was fewer passengers than expected and at a worse load factor than predicted.
On a rolling 12-month basis, passenger numbers were up 32.1% as capacity rose 26.1%, with load factor up over four percentage points to 90.8%.
Wizz hailed a record-breaking calendar year for Wizz Air Abu-Dhabi, which doubled the number of flights to 15,000 and carried more than three million passengers.
But analysts at Peel Hunt said: "Wizz Air carried fewer passengers than we expected in December, and at a much lower load factor."
Seat capacity was only slightly below the 6.1 million assumed, but the load factor of 82.1% was down 2.4 percentage points year on year, much less than the 87.5% anticipated, resulting in 5.0 million passengers, below expectations for 5.4 million.
"We see this as slightly disappointing, particularly as capacity is now to be impacted by the GTF engine inspections," the analysts said.
Shares fell 1% to 2,193.01p in early trading.