Wizz Air Holdings said in its annual report that it pocketed "significant compensation" from Pratt & Whitney for the PW1100G GTF engine issues but warned that the number of aircraft grounded will only grow in the coming months.

The Wizz Air (W6, Budapest) parent did not disclose the amount it was given but recorded the proceeds during the last fiscal year, which ended on March 31, 2024. The total "credits and compensation received from suppliers", which includes the Pratt & Whitney settlement, during the year amounted to net proceeds of EUR198.6 million euros (USD215.2 million).

"We expect to secure future compensation on similar terms for the fourth quarter of the 2025 fiscal year [ending March 31, 2025] and beyond," the holding said.

The low-cost carrier revealed that the average engine off-wing time is now around 300 days. However, the deliveries of new spare engines allow it to mitigate this wait.

"We are expecting further eight to ten new spare engine deliveries, most of which should be delivered by the end of June 2024. The total number of spare engines should exceed 50 by the end of this summer," it said.

Besides securing additional spare engines, the carrier has been actively adding capacity through wet leases and increasing the efficiency of the A320neo and A321neo fleet by using them on longer sectors. It has also extended leases for eleven A321-200s, adding to the previously extended nine A320-200s and four A321-200s. Between April 2024 and March 2025, it expects to induct twenty-seven A321-200NX (of which four were already delivered in April and May 2024) and add three more A320-200s on dry leases.

The airline had forty-seven PW-powered A320-200Ns and A321-200NX grounded as of May 17. This number is expected to rise to around 50 aircraft by the end of September. The ch-aviation fleets module shows that Wizz Air currently operates forty A321neo with PW1100G engines; Wizz Air Malta six A320neo and sixty-three A321neo; Wizz Air UK eighteen A321neo; and Wizz Air Abu Dhabi four A321neo.

Wizz Air emphasised that the twenty-three A321-200NX remaining for delivery until March 2025 are poised to include the first A321-200NY(XLR). The holding formally expects a rapid ramp-up in A321neo deliveries between April 2025 and March 2026, taking net seventy-two A321-200NX and nine A321-200NY(XLR)s in this period, although it conceded that around 30-35 of these aircraft are likely to be delayed.

Taking into account the impact of the PW-related groundings, Wizz Air plans no capacity growth for the 2025 fiscal year and will maintain the same level it had in the April 2023-March 2024 period.