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Wizz Air may ground entire fleet

The airline remains active in three countries
March 23, 2020

Wizz Air (WIZZ) warned that it may have no choice but to ground its whole fleet, with international travel restrictions and a rise in social distancing already forcing the airline to keep 85 per cent of its aircraft on the tarmac.

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On average, Wizz Air’s capacity has fallen 30 per cent during March. A national ban on air travel in Poland on 15 March prompted the suspension of its flights to and from the country. The airline remains operational in Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria with the remaining 15 per cent of its fleet. 

“The grounding of the entire fleet remains a distinct possibility over the next period,” the airline said, “as potential additional travel restrictions and social distancing policies issued by authorities may make international flying for commercial purposes either untenable or impossible”.

Wizz Air has enacted cost-saving measures and said that the strength of its balance sheet left it “confident in its ability to survive even a potential prolonged grounding substantially beyond the current estimates for the impact of COVID-19 in Europe”. 

Wizz Air did not provide updated numbers for its balance sheet in its latest announcement. A January third-quarter update revealed that as of 31 December the company had €1.32bn (£1.23bn) in cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet, with no information on debt available. For the six months to September, the group had net debt (including lease liabilities) of €384.7m.