Skift Take

Jozsef Varadi expects significant losses in the next quarter because airports, rather than his own airline, aren’t coping with the rebound in traffic.

Matthew Parsons

Wizz Air said on Wednesday it was suffering significant costs from cancellations and “operational hiccups” at airports, especially in the UK, as the industry tackles a shortage of air traffic controllers and security staff.

The European budget airline forecast an operating loss for its fiscal first quarter, which runs from April to June, due to the disruptions, after its annual loss to end March widened on soaring fuel costs.

Airports across Europe have struggled in the past week to cope with a rebound in demand, with British airports in particular facing chaos as a school half-term holiday coincided with the Platinum Jubilee holiday weekend.

Britain’s Transport Secretary Grant Shapps last week told airlines to stop selling tickets for flights they cannot staff after a spate of cancellations.

Wizz CEO Jozsef Varadi said the ultra-low cost airline was “fully staffed” and that the issue was not with its own staffing, but that airports not having sufficient controllers and security staff was adding to the delays in flights.

“It’s coming from the dysfunctioning of the supply chain in certain areas”, Varadi said.

He said the current situation was “lose-lose” and “highly damaging,” and that the only way to fix it was for air traffic control to be fully staffed immediately.

The London-listed group said demand for the summer was strong, but operational challenges had forced it to deploy extra resources to minimize disruptions.

Varadi said Wizz has managed the trading impact from the war in Ukraine and believes the Covid-19 pandemic has entered an “endemic phase”.

Wizz Air expects second-quarter fares in the upper single digits ahead of the same period of 2020, without giving a comparison to last year, and passenger load factors to come in above 90 percent.

The Hungary-based airline reported a loss of $686.6 million for the year ended March 31, compared with a loss of $615 million a year earlier.

Shares were down 2 percent in morning trade.

(Reporting by Yadarisa Shabong and Pushkala Aripaka in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Jan Harvey)

This article was written by Yadarisa Shabong and Pushkala Aripaka from Reuters and was legally licensed through the Industry Dive Content Marketplace. Please direct all licensing questions to [email protected].

Skift Take

Good morning from Skift. It’s Wednesday, June 8, in New York City. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.

Rashaad Jorden

Today’s edition of Skift’s daily podcast explains Hopper’s latest fintech product, how a Florida private rail line will connect Miami and Orlando by Christmas, and Accor’s ambitions for Wojo across Africa.

Listen Now

🎧 Subscribe

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Google Podcasts

Episode Notes

Online travel agency Hopper is expanding its array of fintech products, including one that allows customers to pay a fee to leave a hotel after check-in for any reason, reports Executive Editor Dennis Schaal.

Schaal writes that if guests, for example, don’t get the promised waterfront view or find dirty bed sheets, they can book a similar hotel and Hopper would pay all of the rebooking costs. Guests don’t have to leave immediately following check-in but can depart later in the stay if problems arise. A Hopper spokesperson said the average fee to obtain the leave for any reason guarantee is $30.

In addition to debuting its leave for any reason hotel offering, Hopper is expanding its cancel for any reason service to hotels as well as enabling price freezes for rental cars. The average fee for freezing the price of a car rental is also $30.

Next, private rail operator Brightline is speeding up the planned launch of trains taking passengers from Miami to Orlando. The company aims to have them up and running by Christmas, writes Airlines Reporter Edward Russell.

Wes Edens, the founder and co-CEO of Fortress Investment — Brightline’s parent company — said on Tuesday the railway operator is targeting Christmas for the launch of its Miami to Orlando service. Brightline had previously stated the line — the first high-speed passenger rail service to connect the two cities — would open early next year.

Edens described the rail line as an obvious place for private investment in passenger rail given demand projections. Russell writes that the line is expected to be a boon for tourism by enabling travelers, especially those from outside of the U.S. accustomed to riding trains, to easily visit attractions in both South and Central Florida.

We end today in Africa. Hotel chain Accor’s co-working brand Wojo is expanding to hotels on the continent, reports Corporate Travel Editor Matthew Parsons.

Wojo is set to roll out co-working spaces in former French colonies throughout sub-Saharan Africa — such as the Ivory Coast, Senegal and Cameroon — after signing a deal with hotel investment platform Kasada Capital Management. Parsons writes the partnership could be attractive to digital nomads wanting to work in hotels operated by a familiar brand across West Africa. The deal also allows Kasada to operate Wojo spaces in non-Accor branded hotels.

Wojo operates co-working spaces in 100 hotels in Brazil in addition to its presence in other South American nations. Accor CEO Sebastien Bazin said at Skift Forum Europe in March that the hotel giant would look to Wojo to drive growth after the pandemic.