In this regard, the contrast between WizzAir and its bigger UK counterpart U2 always intrigued me a bit. Wizz avoiding Western European bases because of costs, EZY avoiding Central-Eastern European bases... why, actually?

Traffic figures for April: 2,318,770 up 30.5% on April 2016. Load factor 90.7% up from 86.5%. Rolling 12 month figure 24,305,955 up 20.2% impressive figures even if Easter was in March last year.

Wizzair are more comparable with Ryanair than Easy- my guess is they have nothing like the "book late pay a premium" business traffic which EasyJet does. The latter will be reluctant to get into a market which doesn't have that traffic. UK sun routes are a bunfight that everyone goes for but with Jet2, Monarch, Ryanair EasyJet Monarch, TUI, Thomas Cook, etc etc in there that's probably too competitive and costly to set up for Wizz. Ryanair have of course gone for Eastern Europe to some extent.

Wizz Air said it carried 2.3 million passengers in April, up 31% from 1.8 million a year earlier, as its load factor rose by 3.6 percentage points to 90.1% from 86.5%.

On a rolling annual basis, passenger numbers grew by 20% to 24.3 million, while load factor increased by 2.2 percentage points to 90.4% from 88.2%.

Flew Luton to Gdansk last Sunday and back again on Tuesday and was operated by the newly upgraded A321 which was only added to the Gdansk base the week before and both flights were 100% full!

It was a similar story when I flew to Katowice in March.

Nothing seems to be stopping Wizzair, even though they are competing directly with Ryanair on many of the London to Poland routes!

Strange because both Gdansk and Katowice have both been down on passenger numbers this year showing a decrease in every month of 2017, with them both being down 4% in April.

Less frequencys per week but more seats on offer on each flight. I read on another forum that 3 a320 flights compared to 2 a321 is a big difference in amount of seats over a period of time.

It was 19*180 seats/week in April, now it's 13*230 + 3*180/week (3420 vs. 3530).
3 less flights but 110 more seats per week. It's hard to beat the economics of the 230 seater A-321.

New Route
 

Budapest - Saint Petersburg (2x weekly from 27AUG)

[URL="https://book.wizzair.com/en-GB/about_us/news/wizzen577"]

St. Petersburg will join the network starting 27th August
https://wizzair.com/en-gb/informatio...zorsz%C3%A1g#/

Financial figures of fiscal year 2016/17 announced today:


- passengers carried 23,8 million (+19%);
- load factor 90,1% (+1,9 pp);
- revenue 1571 mio EUR (+10%);
- profit (IFRS) 246 mio EUR (+28%);
- profit margin 15,7%;
- free cash at hand 774 mio EUR;
- unit revenue down 8,5% to 3,75 cents/ASK;
- unit cost down 7,8% to 3,15 cents/ASK;
- FY18 profit guidance 250 to 270 mio EUR.


Brexit:

"Reiterating that despite the UK's decision to leave the European Union ("Brexit"), there are no signs of demand weakness on routes to/from the UK. The negative translation effect on British pound revenues due to Brexit in FY2017 is estimated at €17 million, which was absorbed by the rest of Wizz Air's large and diversified route network."

Link to the above info:

London Stock Exchange - Wizz Air

Looks ripe for a takeover bid by IAG...

Jozsef Varadi, Wizz Air's CEO, said it had been “another year of profitable growth” despite a “trading environment of very low fares and increasing fuel prices”.

“We will continue to expand our route network, drive efficiency in our operating model, grow our ancillary revenue streams and enhance our compelling customer proposition,” added Varadi.

“Growth will continue as a top priority for us and we plan to increase capacity by around 23 per cent and carry nearly 30 million passengers in full-year 2018.”

nguba - why do you think IAG in particular should buy Wizzair rather than a LCC instead ?

Not nguba but..
 

- Very little overlap in route coverage compared with Vueling
- More or less identical fleet as Vueling

The above would be similar for Easyjet too, although there would be more overlap (I believe)
Ryanair matches none of the above

I think WizzAir pretty much ticks all the boxes for IAG:

- It's a profitable, cash generative airline with a low cost base and no legacy issues

- It would significantly improve IAG coverage of Central & Eastern Europe with little geographic overlap with existing IAG airlines

- Strong brand with a high market share in CEE

- Lots of scope to improve profitability through IAG group synergies

- It would give IAG a much bigger presence at another London airport

Strong brands that "own" a particular market with lots of potential for growth are exactly what IAG is looking for.

The first 186-seat A-320 (aircraft #82) was delivered today.

Wizz Air has improved its May 2017 capacity by 20.9% to 2.6m, with passenger numbers up 22.2% to 2.4m and load factor rising 1.0ppts to 91.1%.

On a 12-month rolling basis, capacity was up 17.4% to 27.4m, with passenger numbers up 20.3% to 24.7m and load factor rising 2.1ppts to 90.5%.

Wizzair would see it as a step down being part of IAG, afterall Wizzair get flights away on time with bags everyday.