W6 WZZ Subsidiaries None Destinations 140 Headquarters Budapest, Hungary Motto Now we can all fly | WZZ WIZZ Fleet size 77 Company slogan Now we can all fly. CEO József Váradi (Sep 2003–) Revenue 1.227 billion EUR (2015) | |
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Founded September 2003, Budapest, Hungary Profiles | ||
London luton airport plane spotting wizzair airbus a320 sharklets wizz air hungary planes
Wizz Air Hungary Ltd. (Hungarian: Wizz Air Hungary Légiközlekedési Kft.) is a Hungarian low-cost airline with its head office in Budapest. The airline typically uses secondary airports serving many cities across Europe, Israel and the United Arab Emirates. It has the largest fleet of any Hungarian airline, although it is not a flag carrier, and currently serves 35 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.
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Wizz air inaugural flight to dubai world central
History
The airline was established in September 2003. The lead investor is Indigo Partners, an American private equity firm specializing 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 (Hungary).
In 2011, Wizz Air carried 11 million passengers (15% more than in 2010), including 4.2 million passengers on Polish routes (only 2% more than in 2010). Recently Wizz opened new bases in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Georgia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia and Ukraine. However, Poland is still the largest market for Wizz Air.
On 4 October 2012, Wizz Air launched a new cabin bag policy to encourage customers to bring smaller baggage on-board following a successful month-long trial on the London Luton and Katowice route. This means that a smaller (42x32x25cm) cabin bag can be taken on board for free; larger cabin bags (56x45x25cm) would incur a fee varying between €10 or €30.
On 25 February 2015 Wizz Air started trading on London Stock Exchange.
Head office
The current Head office can be found in Laurus offices, Budapest since March 2016. The new building has 5 floors, which gives the company more space than any of the former headquarters. Previously, its head office was at Budapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport.
Financial performance
While attempting to hasten SkyEurope's demise in June 2009, Wizz Air claimed it had been "profitable for several years". However, as a private company it is not required to publish its financial accounts - annual reports are still available. In November 2009, it emerged that Wizz Air was significantly loss-making and had never made a profit while delaying the pay-back of €32 million of debt by five years. Losses since commencing operations total €78 million, which, in 2009, fueled suggestions that the airline would file for bankruptcy. Since then Wizz Air reported profits in 2012, in 2013, in 2014 and in 2015. Wizz Air has the second lowest CASK (cost per available seat km) among European airlines.
Subsidiaries
As of April 2015, Wizz Air had created subsidiaries in three countries, but these no longer exist:
Operations
Wizz Air prefers to land at smaller or secondary airports to reduce costs and fees. The airline also has a buy on board service called Wizz Café and a shopping service called Wizz Boutique.
Destinations
Wizz Air operates from 25 bases as of 2016.
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 11 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 June 26 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 (near Munich) and Torp (near Oslo), commencing on 26 June 2015, as well as to Hahn (near Frankfurt) and Skavsta (near Stockholm), commencing on 28 June 2015.
In February 2016 Wizz Air announced a new base at David the Builder Kutaisi International Airport (serving Kutaisi in Georgia).
Fleet
As of 31 January 2017, the Wizz Air fleet consists of the following aircraft.: