Wizz Air’s boss: Airline not good candidate for M&A
Wizz Air is not a good candidate for M&A but it will focus instead on organic growth, boss Jozsef Varadi commented.
The chief executive’s remarks came in response to a question on whether Wizz would ever consider acquiring rival Easyjet.
Easyjet on the other hand recently said it would not rule out any potential takeovers but it would only pursue deals if they made financial sense to investors.
“We don’t rule anything out, if it delivers value to shareholders then it’s doable, but we are focused and confident in our standalone plan,” chief executive Johan Lundgren on Tuesday whilst unveiling Easyjet’s year-end results.
The UK low-cost carrier managed to shrink its underlying losses from £1.1bn to £178m, while its net debt at £700m was one of the lowest in aviation.
Wizz Air, on the other hand, was hit particularly hard by soaring fuel prices, which tripled its losses compared to the previous year.
Losses increased 217.9 per cent to €384.4m (£330.6m) in the second quarter of 2022.
Nevertheless, the Hungarian carrier said today bookings for the next three months remained intact.
Wizz was not the only low-cost airline to expect strong bookings, as Ryanair’s chief executive Michael O’Leary told journalists on Thursday Christmas bookings were ahead of pre-Covid levels.