CNN presents Wizz Air’s multipass innovation, asks CEO whether Wizz will go to the USA

“Quest means business” – a phenomenon in the business world and Richard Quest is now in Budapest, Hungary. Of course, he did several interviews, including an exciting piece with József Váradi, the CEO of the Hungarian low-cost airline, Wizz Air.

Quest asked first about Wizz Air’s brand new service, the multipass allowing passengers to travel with Wizz multiple times just like it happens when you buy a metro season ticket. Mr József Váradi said that they were not short of passengers. Instead, they respect the people who choose them and would like to reward their loyalty with the multipass opportunity.

About questions concerning the difficulties of the operation environment, Váradi acknowledged that strikes do not do good for the business. But he added that they “learnt their lessons”. They invested hundreds of millions of dollars to improve resilience, “build more buffers, more spares, more slacks.” There may be delays even this summer, but they will not have to cancel flights.

Quest asked which direction Wizz Air plans to expand. India or the USA? Váradi said they do not want to go to the States and said nothing about moving to India. But he highlighted that currently, their maximum flight time is six hours. In 2024, that will increase to 8 hours. Mr Váradi added that one should look on the map between London and Abu Dhabi, Wizz Air’s two main bases and will find that there are still a lot of dots to connect in that area.

Concerning aircraft, he said they have 180 now, and that fleet will grow above 500 soon because they ordered 360 Airbus planes. He said Wizz Air was profitable and growing, and their capacity was the most economical and sustainable.