Leave pain for Wizz Air and Eurotunnel
Wizz Air, the biggest budget carrier in eastern Europe, and Channel Tunnel operator Eurotunnel today revealed their Brexit wounds.
They are cutting expansion plans and profit forecasts respectively due to Britain’s vote out of the EU.
FTSE 250-listed Wizz Air said it was halving its planned growth on UK routes “as a direct result of Brexit”, adding it will redeploy those planned flights “to other non-UK routes”.
The airline posted a 52% rise in pre-tax profit in the three months to the July to a record €52.3 million (£43.9 million), in part due to cheap fuel but also thanks to soaring passenger numbers.
Wizz is expanding fast, and last week struck a $2.5 billion (£1.9 billion) deal for new jet engines, but said this country wouldn’t benefit from its original growth plans because “the UK’s decision to leave the European Union has led to a notable weakness in fares”.
Eurotunnel, whose shares sank 30% after the referendum vote, said the resultant plunge in the value of the pound meant its 2016 profits will be 4.5% lower, at €535 million.
The following year’s profit will be hit by a similar amount. Record truck traffic helped underlying earnings inch up 4% to €249 million for the first half.
