Low-cost European provider Wizz Air expects to return to revenue this 12 months because the post-pandemic rebound in journey gathers tempo and the group places a sequence of setbacks behind it.

The airline’s expectations of constructing a revenue within the 12 months to March 2024 distinction with the earlier monetary 12 months, when it confronted a number of issues, together with a choice to desert gasoline hedges that backfired when the struggle in Ukraine despatched costs up sharply.

The gasoline worth publicity was a considerable contributor to the provider’s web loss for the 12 months to March 31 of €535mn. With complete foreign money and gasoline hedges now in place, the Budapest-based group mentioned on Thursday that it anticipated to report a web revenue for the present monetary 12 months of between €350mn and €450mn.

Wizz Air has expanded aggressively because it was based nearly 20 years in the past, making it a competitor to Ryanair in Europe’s low-cost market.

Referring to the dearth of hedging, chief government József Váradi mentioned its gasoline prices within the first half of its final monetary 12 months had been “completely all the way down to the market” and that the market “was not paying a favour to us”.

He attributed the anticipated turnround from the €535mn loss to earnings of €350mn to €450mn to 3 elements.

Váradi mentioned that of the roughly €1bn enchancment he anticipated price efficiencies to generate €400mn, an additional €200mn to come back from higher use of the airline’s fleet and crew and about €400mn from having gasoline and foreign money hedges in place.

“I’m very assured within the efficiency of the airline financially because of all of the operational adjustments and investments we’ve made,” Váradi mentioned.

Like different low-cost airways, Wizz is investing within the newest era of single-aisle, fuel-efficient plane. In the course of the present monetary 12 months, it’s anticipating to obtain 42 Airbus A321neo plane, with new, fuel-efficient engines. It intends handy again to lessors 16 smaller A320s with older engines.

The corporate is concentrating on enlargement to Gulf states such because the United Arab Emirates and different elements of Asia, in addition to development in western Europe.

Váradi mentioned that, in mild of supply issues at Airbus, it was anticipating to obtain about 4 fewer plane than initially meant in the course of the monetary 12 months. Nevertheless, he mentioned, the airline had “levers to play with” to handle the problem, together with extending the leases of plane in its current fleet.

Wizz Air shares have soared nearly 50 per cent this 12 months, reducing among the steep decline that started in early 2021, as buyers anticipate additional enhancements within the provider’s efficiency.

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Wizz Air was pressured to restructure the ten per cent of its companies that had been scheduled to serve airports in both Ukraine or Russia.

For the 12 months to March 2023, Wizz Air’s revenues greater than doubled to €3.9bn as passenger demand recovered from the pandemic. On Thursday, the corporate mentioned it anticipated to extend its obtainable seat capability by about 30 per cent within the present monetary 12 months.

“I believe that we’re clearly seeing very robust demand for our companies and merchandise,” Váradi mentioned.