Wizz Air


Wizz Air, legally incorporated as Wizz Air Hungary Ltd. and stylised as W!ZZ Air, is a Hungarian low-cost airline with its head office in Budapest. The airline serves many cities across Europe, as well as some destinations in North Africa and the Middle East. It has the largest fleet of any Hungarian airline, although it is not a flag carrier, and currently serves 44 countries. Its Jersey-based parent company, Wizz Air Holdings plc, is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. As of 2018, the airline has its largest base at Budapest Airport with over 60 destinations. In 2019 the airline transported 39.8 million passengers.

History

The airline was established in September 2003. The lead investor is Indigo Partners, an American private equity firm specialising in transportation investments. The first flight was made from Katowice International Airport on 19 May 2004. The airline's CEO is József Váradi, former CEO of Malév Hungarian Airlines. The company is registered in Pest County.
On 25 February 2015 Wizz Air started trading on London Stock Exchange.
In November 2017 Wizz Air announced that they were planning to launch a British division called Wizz Air UK. The airline is based at London Luton, mainly to take advantage of a number of take-off and landing slots acquired from Monarch Airlines when the latter entered administration in 2017. The airline applied successfully to the CAA for an AOC and a Type A Operating Licence. The airline launched operations in March 2018 using British registered aircraft. Wizz Air UK will start to take over the flights to the UK that are currently operated by Wizz Air. Wizz Air said that the airline will employ up to 100 staff by the end of 2018.
In November 2018, it was reported that Wizz Air had announced plans to reactivate its Wizz Air Ukraine subsidiary, approximately three years after it was shut down. Under the plan, Wizz Air Ukraine will seek to complete certification in 2019 following the acquisition of twenty A320/321 neo jets. Bases will be developed in Kyiv as well as other cities across the country. By 2025, it aims to have a passenger throughput of 6 million passengers per annum.
In July 2020, the airline announced that it will form a joint venture with the Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company.

Corporate affairs

Head office

The current head office can be found in Laurus offices Building B, Budapest, since March 2015.
Previously, its head office was at Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport. Wizz Air signed the lease agreement in October 2010 and moved there with 150 employees in June 2011. The airline occupied over of space in an office building refurbished after the airline's arrival. The facility, with open-plan offices, housed about 150 employees.
Prior to the time its head office was at the airport, its head office was in the Airport Business Park C2 in Vecsés, close to the airport.

Operations

As is common with all European low-cost carriers, Wizz Air prefers to use smaller or secondary airports in order to reduce costs and fees incurred by service usage. It also has a buy-on-board food service called Wizz Café as well as a second service called Wizz Boutique, which is for other items.

Subsidiaries

;Current subsidiaries
;Former subsidiaries
Wizz Air started new services between Katowice and London Gatwick in 2008. In January 2008, flights started from Gdansk to Gothenburg, Bournemouth and Coventry. In summer 2008, Wizz Air restarted summer seasonal services from Katowice and Budapest to Girona, as well as a new weekly service to Girona from Gdańsk. Other summer services from Budapest are Heraklion, Corfu, Burgas and Varna; from Katowice to Crete-Heraklion and Burgas; and Warsaw to Corfu and Burgas. It also restarted its three-times-weekly service from London Luton Airport to Burgas. On 2 October 2008, Wizz Air announced that a number of its Romanian services would have increased frequency following an order for three Airbus A320 aircraft.
In February 2012, Wizz Air announced that it would start flights from Debrecen International Airport to London, beginning 18 June 2012. On 11 September 2012, Wizz Air announced new routes to and from Tel Aviv, Israel.
On 12 April 2013 Wizz Air announced that it would start flights from Budapest Airport to Baku's Heydar Aliyev International Airport starting from 17 June 2013. On 26 June 2013, Wizz Air announced entry into the Slovakian market, adding one new route from Košice International Airport starting from September 2013.
On 26 June 2015 the airline opened its 19th base, at Tuzla International Airport in Bosnia and Herzegovina and deployed one new Airbus A320 aircraft at the airport. With one aircraft stationed at the airport, Wizz Air opened new routes to Memmingen Airport and Sandefjord Airport, Torp, commencing on 26 June 2015, as well as to Frankfurt-Hahn Airport and Stockholm Skavsta Airport, commencing on 28 June 2015.
In February 2016 Wizz Air announced a new base at David the Builder Kutaisi International Airport. In October 2016 Wizz Air announced a new base at Chișinău International Airport in Moldova. In December 2016 Wizz Air announced a new base in Varna, Bulgaria.
In February 2017 Wizz Air announced a new base at London Luton Airport in the United Kingdom. Also in 2017, the company added three new routes, to Tel Aviv, Israel, Pristina in Kosovo, and Kutaisi in Georgia, for a total of over 500 routes.
In January 2018 Wizz Air announced a new base at Vienna International Airport in Austria. Three Airbus 320/321 are planned to be based in Vienna and the company will operate a total of 17 new routes from the Austrian capital.
In November 2018, the airline announced it would open a base at Kraków John Paul II International Airport in Poland, starting with 12 routes.
CityIATADestinationsRetention
BudapestBUD7032,25%
London-LutonLTN6630,20%
ViennaVIE61
BucharestOTP5124,06%
DortmundDTM48
Warsaw-ChopinWAW4416,16%
Milan-MalpensaMXP38
KatowiceKTW3725,66%
GdańskGDN37
Cluj-NapocaCLJ32
SkopjeSKP32
SofiaSOF31
LarnacaLCA31
Kyiv-ZhulianyIEV29
KrakówKRK27
TiranaTIA25
EindhovenEIN24
BelgradeBEG23
KutaisiKUT21
VilniusVNO20
ChișinăuKIV20
IasiIAS18

Fleet

Wizz Air began operations with a fleet of Airbus A320 jets.
As of July 2019, the Wizz Air fleet consisted of the following aircraft:

Environmental protection

In November 2019, Wizz Air dismissed concerns about the damage the airline may be causing to the environment, raised by the "flightshame" movement. This dismissal was based on the airline's per-passenger emission level. The company said that it would reduce emissions per capita by an additional 30 percent by 2030. At the same time, Wizz Air condemned inefficient airlines - such as Lufthansa - offering business class and using outdated technologies, which cause far more specific environmental damage than Wizz Air.

Incidents

By early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic, had created a case of force majeure in European aviation, gradually forcing airline fleets to land, including the majority of Wizz Air aircraft. Although it was announced in March that no redundancies were planned, one-fifth of the stock was redeemed when it became clear that air travel across the continent was shutting down.
In April 2020, based on passenger numbers, Wizz Air became Europe's largest low-cost airline with 78,000 passengers. By mid-June, they had reached 40 percent of their previous year’s normal weekly revenue, while the proportion of no-shows fell from 80 percent in April to 30 percent.