|
Wizz Air Holdings PLC said Wednesday it has suspended all flights to and from Ukraine and Russia but will continue to operate Moldova flights out of Iasi, Romania.
Shares in the budget airline were 3.0% higher in London on Wednesday afternoon at 3,103.47 pence each. However, the stock remains down 34% since the year began.
‘As the only EU airline to have bases and aircraft based in Ukraine, with three aircraft located in Kyiv and one aircraft in Lviv, we have an evacuation plan ready to bring the assets out of the country when it is safe to do so,’ Wizz Air explained.
Wizz noted that suspending its Ukraine and Russia flights will results in 2% fewer network flights in February than originally scheduled, and expects March to see a 7% drop on the network.
The airline continued: ‘At this point our financial 2022 guidance in terms of operating loss will be materially consistent with the guidance provided at the time of our third-quarter results release.
‘The commercial and commodity impact behind the geopolitical crisis was in part offset by the improving post-Covid trading environment and as such we expect to have a fourth quarter operating loss slightly greater than the third quarter operating loss subject to preserving the integrity of our assets on the ground or other further developments in March 2022.’
Chief Executive Jozsef Varadi said the situation is ‘very concerning’ and plans to offer Ukrainian refugees 100,000 free seats on all short-haul flights departing from Ukraine's border countries, and, will also offer €29.99 rescue flights.
‘We continue to work through the operational challenges arising from the crisis in Ukraine and we are redistributing capacity to routes and bases where we can drive demand in line with our proven ultra-low cost model,’ he added.
Copyright 2022 Alliance News Limited. All Rights Reserved.
|
