Official: This European city is now the largest base of Wizz Air
Romania is also ahead of Hungary in the air, with Bucharest replacing Budapest as Wizz Air’s largest base last year.
Bucharest is Wizz Air’s largest base in 2023
Bucharest replaced Budapest as Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air’s largest base last year, Ziarul Financiar reports. According to the Hungarian News Agency (MTI), Wizz Air’s Bucharest base has 17 aircraft, with an average of 2,400 flights a month to and from Bucharest. Meanwhile, in the case of Budapest, that number is around 2,000.
Two more aircraft will be added to the Bucharest base in the near future. “This investment will bring the total number of planes at the Bucharest base to 19, employing 800 people. This is the largest base for Wizz Air, which will strengthen its leading position in Romania with a market share of 57%,” the airline said.
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- Wizz Air to have its largest base in this Eastern European city
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Six Wizz bases in Romania
Wizz Air operates six bases in Romania: in addition to Bucharest, in Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár), Sibiu (Nagyszeben), Timișoara (Temesvár), Iași (Jászvásár) and Craiova. From these airports, they operate more than 170 flights, both domestic and international. International flights fly to 24 destinations. Last year, nearly 13 million people flew on Romanian Wizz Air flights, compared to only 8.5 million a year earlier.
Competition Authority to probe Wizz Air
On a less positive note, the Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) has opened proceedings against the airline over suspicions that important information may have been withheld from passengers. The agency has noticed that between December 2022 and May 2023, returning passengers with a return ticket were not able to complete the free online check-in on their mobile phones due to the specificities of the website’s mobile view.
As a result, affected passengers had to pay a EUR 40 airport check-in fee. Wizz Air responded in a statement, saying that they had already solved the technical problem, which they had also notified to the GVH.
Wizz flights to resume
March 2024 will see two Wizz Air flights resume. On 1 March, the first flight to Tel Aviv after months will take off. On 31 March, the first flight to Chișinău after a year will take off. The latter route was launched back in March 2022, but was suspended on 14 March 2023 due to the uncertain security situation caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war.