Wizz Air sees expansion potential despite pandemic

Wizz Air sees potential in expanding its operations in the region despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The airline is in the process of announcing new route launches on an almost daily basis for the current summer season and recently outlined plans to commence services from Belgrade, Skopje and Tuzla to Salzburg next month, as well as from Milan to Pristina, however, more could follow. In addition, the carrier has added a number of new routes from other cities in the region, including Tirana, Sofia and Bucharest. “We are doing a lot of demand sensing. We are trying to understand what people are looking for and what they want to book. We look at our own database and outside databases. So, we have a pretty good sense at what people want and what we are learning is that they want to travel and not in a year from now, they want to go now”, the carrier’s CEO, Jozsef Varadi, said.

Wizz Air was the first airline to resume commercial flights to a number of airports in the former Yugoslavia upon their reopening including Belgrade, Sarajevo, Podgorica, Tuzla and Niš. Unlike others, it has almost fully restored pre-Covid frequencies on destinations it serves from the abovementioned cities. In addition to adding new routes in the region, the carrier will also strengthen some existing ones, with the likes of Niš - Memmingen being increased to three times per week during the coming winter season. “Covid-19 is a significant issue, making a significant impact on the industry, but at the same time, it is also creating quite some opportunities for us. It’s even increased our appetite, given the situation, as we’ve seen competition is getting weaker here or there”, Mr Varadi noted. He added that the new routes currently being introduced are those mostly popular with certain categories of passengers willing to return the sky first. “Younger people are coming back before older ones. Holidaymakers will also move first, as well as families wanting to reunite with loved ones in their home countries and we expect people who work in other countries to go back to their jobs”, Mr Varadi said.

Wizz Air’s new base in Abu Dhabi could also see some cities in the region get their first low cost service to the Emirati capital. Wizz Air Abu Dhabi will launch with six aircraft, which is double the amount originally planned. The launch date of the new budget airline is going ahead as scheduled for later this year. “We are looking at a larger scale start versus what we originally contemplated. We would be looking at a six aircraft start in the first six months”, Mr Varadi said. He added, “We can capture five billion of the world’s population within a radius of six and a half hours from Abu Dhabi. We think it represents plenty of opportunities for the airline to develop its network. We’re going to start that initiative commercially within a few weeks, and operationally, we will be up in the air towards the end of the year as planned”.

The budget airline expects to fly 60% of its capacity over the summer and 80% from September 2020 to March 2021, but plans are subject to the easing of travel restrictions by governments. Wizz Air plans to resume operations to its remaining markets in the former Yugoslavia, including Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Kosovo, during the second half of June.