The Air New Zealand Limited (ASX: AIZ) share price is bucking the trend today, rising against the overall ASX market sentiment.
This comes after the company provided a half-year guidance update for the 2023 financial year.
At the time of writing, shares in the airline operator are up 9.24% to 65 cents apiece.
By contrast, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (XJO) is down 1.46% to 6,706.9 points following losses on Wall Street overnight.
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Air New Zealand share receive welcomed boost
The Air New Zealand share price is travelling higher today following the release of its upbeat forward sales report.
According to the update, Air New Zealand advised that it is continuing to see strong sales numbers for the first three months of FY 2023. In particular, January 2023 is expected to be especially robust, given the school holiday period when families mostly travel.
At present, Air New Zealand stated that it is running at 70% of FY 2019 capacity (pre-pandemic levels).
On the basis of this outlook, the company projects earnings before taxes and other significant items to be in the range of $200 million to $275 million for the first half of FY 2023.
However, this is based upon the average price of jet fuel price remaining at approximately US $130/bbl.
If oil prices continue to climb, this will weigh on Air New Zealand's earnings.
Taking into account the uncertain macroeconomic factors such as inflationary pressures on costs, management refrained from providing full-year guidance.
Air New Zealand share price summary
No doubt, Air New Zealand shareholders will be hoping for a full recovery in 2023, as the company was hit hard during COVID-19.
The Air New Zealand share price fell to as low as 47 cents in June but has since been slowly climbing since. Its shares remain 30% lower over the past 12 months.
Air New Zealand commands a market capitalisation of roughly $2.2 billion with approximately 3.37 billion shares on issue.
