Wizz Air has reported a higher quarterly operating loss as it eyes transatlantic charters from the UK.
For the three months to 31 December 2025, the third quarter of its 2025/2026 financial year, Wizz Air reported an €48 million increase in its operating loss to €123.9 million.
The budget carrier has suffered with issues relating to its Pratt & Whitney manufactured engines for the past two years, but said it has seen ‘continued progress’ with its fleet, with 33 aircraft grounded as of the end of 2025, down from 40 at the end of 2024.
Chief Executive Jozsef Varadi said: “We are steadily recovering from the engine-related aircraft grounding and in the next fiscal year we are targeting to have an average of 20-25 aircraft on the ground due to powered metal issues.”
In the three months to 31 December 2025, the airline’s fleet surpassed 250 aircraft, almost 75% of them A320neos.
Jozsef said: “We continue to execute the commercial strategy we outlined earlier this fiscal year, focusing on fortifying our key bases and concentrating our efforts on network design across Central and Eastern Europe, Italy and London.
“Our operations have delivered strong reliability and punctuality, continuing the trend from the summer. Commercially, we continued to invest into all our existing markets, putting on sale new flights and announcing further aircraft allocations for next summer.”
Speaking on the airline’s outlook for the rest of this year, Varadi he added: “The ASK [available seat kilometres] capacity for full F26 is expected to grow to around 10% over the previous year.
“Based on a forward booking curve, the bookings are currently ahead of last year. The expectation is that load factor for F26 finishes north of 91%, similar as last year.
“We see similar unit revenue trends we have seen at the start of last quarter (Q3) and we are forecasting flat year-on-year unit revenue for F26.
“Total unit costs for full F26 may see modest inflation versus last year as we forecast increased navigation costs from higher Eurocontrol rates, maintenance costs due to inflationary pressures, partly reflecting the uncertainty around Pratt & Whitney’s engine redeliveries from shop visits, and higher depreciation costs related to the retirement schedule of the A320ceo family.”
