Investors are set for another busy week of earnings, with Wizz Air (LON: WIZZ) and easyJet (LON: EZJ) set to post updates…
easyJet announce their quarterly results on Wednesday, while Wizz Air report its results on Thursday. Both airlines shares have rallied over 35% in 2023, but will the latest results back up investor confidence.
In Q4 easyJet said it achieved a record bounce back, delivering its best ever headline EBITDAR of £674m. Revenue increased 296% with capacity surging 189% year-on-year. Of course, airlines were up against weaker comparatives.
The recovery in demand has been evident, and despite soaring inflation, consumers have yet to cut back travel spending.
easyJet Chief Operating Officer David Morgan recently expressed his optimism for the airline industry this year, stating that they have “seen a number of surveys showing consumers might be saving in some areas, but not on travel or their holidays.”
Morgan added that inflation is still an issue, but consumers are “prioritising travel and putting off renovation of their bathroom.”
Above you can see that even over the holiday period, mentions of easyJet jumped, representing a potential rise in demand.
Meanwhile, our sentiment tracking shows consumers lean positive to neutral on the airline.
easyJet was recently initiated with an Equal Weight rating at Morgan Stanley, with analyst Conor Dwyer, who set a a 425p price target on the stock, stating that he favours carriers able to absorb weakening demand.
As for Wizz Air, its most recent results told a similar story to the rest of the industry…
Passenger growth was 112% and revenue increased 149.2% to €2.2bn as capacity recovered following a dire few years for the market.
Going forward, if its share price is anything to go by, investors expect momentum to continue.
Wizz Air Chief Executive Jozsef Varadi stated in its interim results that the group is gearing up to “operate 35% higher capacity in its second half versus 2019.”
Additionally, Wizz Air’s website traffic is nothing short of impressive over the last year…
Continued demand throughout 2022 has seen its website traffic surge to highs of almost 1.5m. Even with the pent-up demand from Covid beginning to wane, demand for flights continues to climb which should be a positive for Wizz’s upcoming release.
Meanwhile, looking ahead the group will also hope demand is boosted by its new routes between European cities and Saudi Arabia in early January.
Overall both Wizz Air and easyJet look like they will report positive demand metrics. However, it will be important to watch out for a recovery in the group’s net earnings, after both reported losses in the previous updates.