Wizz Air's near-term revenue dips and Iran war clouds outlook

The airline expects first-quarter RASK, an industry gauge of sales, to fall by a mid-to-high single-digit percentage in the three months to the end of June, before stabilising to roughly flat in the second quarter to September.

For the year ended March 31, 2026, Wizz Air reported an operating profit of €139.7 million ($161.3 million), beating analysts' expectations of €88.51 million, according to data compiled by LSEG.

Since warning of a net loss from the war impact in March, Wizz Air has added capacity to existing and new routes and increased promotions to support leisure demand in the crucial summer holiday season.

It has cut prices for budget travellers on routes with lower demand, particularly to destinations such as Cyprus and Egypt.

Bernstein analyst Alex Irving said the airline's capacity prospects might be too optimistic.

"What really took us by surprise is the plan to persist with high levels of capacity growth into H2," he said.

Varadi justified his decision, saying he expects airlines to pull out of some markets after the busy northern hemisphere summer. Wizz Air would then be able to enter them with its added capacity.

"You're going to have a lot of airlines taking capacity out, maybe some airlines fail, and as a result, significant market opportunities will get created," he said.

($1 = 0.8662 euros)

(Reporting by Raechel Thankam Job in Bengaluru and Joanna Plucinska in London; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Barbara Lewis)