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CEO of Hungarian Wizz Air: “People’s desire to travel is unstoppable”
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According to József Váradi, the CEO of Wizz Air, the Hungarian low-cost airline is already performing at the pre-crisis level thanks to the unstoppable desire of people to travel as soon as it is allowed by countries’ epidemiological measures. As a result, by the end of the month, Wizz Air will reach its 2019 capacity and may even exceed it this summer.
According to József Váradi, as soon as any ease of restrictions is announced, dozens of people reserve their flight tickets for the summer which shows that travel today is not a question of desire, much more a question of possibility based on countries’ epidemiological measures. The CEO argues that life will not be the same after the pandemic. As he says, this year’s booking numbers show that people’s desire to travel is not diminishing.
Currently, Wizz Air already meets 90% of its weekly capacity of 2019. Moreover, based on the trends,
the CEO is confident that they will fully return to pre-epidemic levels by the end of July.
However, he also added that the current situation is like a roller coaster for all the players in the tourism sector. Therefore, it is worth being aware of the worrying news on how different viral mutations affect pandemic numbers that might become a political factor sooner or later. Accordingly, despite the growing demand for travel in the summer, the post-summer period should also be considered, which may still hold unexpected difficulties.
Read also: Tourism model to change in Budapest?
The CEO hopes that thanks to the increasing vaccination rate in several countries, of which Hungary is one of the pioneers, and with Western Europe also catching up, the population will be much more protected after the summer, which might result in more balanced decision-making by governments.
“I do not think we are at the end of this story yet,” says the company’s executive, adding that at some point, we must accept that we need to live with these viruses while minimising their effect.