Reflecting customer demand, Wizz Air has announced 15 new Polish and Ukrainian routes, which will connect Katowice with Porto, Munich, Lviv, Kharkiv, Malaga, Faro, Podgorica; Gdansk with Lviv; Warsaw with Podgorica and Poznan with Dortmund from March 2018.
“We expect to deliver 30 million passengers in 2018, as Wizz Air currently offers over 550 routes from 28 bases to 144 destinations in 43 countries”, the Hungarian airline’s CEO József Váradi said in an interview with Világgazdaság. “Assuming that we will continue to grow in our current markets, we are adopting new measures to further reduce the company’s operating costs, lower ticket prices, and thus increase the demand for air travel,” he continued.
“We continuously monitor travel demand to best meet the needs of our customers through low ticket fares and great services, as well as capacity planning, adequate to the market,” said George Michalopoulos, chief commercial officer at Wizz Air. “Increasing our seat capacity by 27 per cent in 2018, we stay committed to our Polish customers.”
According to Wizz Air, its fast-growing Ukraine operations will continue to stimulate the local economy as it has done for the last few years, bringing increased employment in Ukraine’s aviation and tourism sectors and supporting more than 600 jobs this year in associated industries throughout the country.
Additionally, following the acquisition of a number of take-off and landing slots from defunct Monarch Airlines, Wizz Air will also increase its fleet at London Luton by two aircraft to a total of seven.
“We continue to develop our business in the United Kingdom,” Mr Váradi commented. “Following the establishment of Wizz Air UK and our accelerated growth plan, just a few days ago we again take a big step forward, acquiring airport slots and airport nightstands at Luton Airport, which will enable us to enhance our presence and competitive position on the London market. While Brexit will certainly pose challenges to the airline industry, we see it as an opportunity for Wizz Air, as our highly efficient low fare model will prevail even more under the new circumstances.”
