Strategy change? Hungarian Wizz Air eyes flights to America

The Hungarian budget airline Wizz Air once harboured grand dreams of conquering Asia, but now it’s setting its sights across the Atlantic. They’ve lodged applications for permission to launch routes to the United States. In past interviews, CEO József Váradi insisted that flying American routes wasn’t on their agenda. Yet, it seems the company is nimbly adapting its strategy – hardly surprising given the ever-shifting sands of the aviation market.

Direct US routes finally taking off from Hungary

Efforts to restore direct links from Budapest to the US after the coronavirus pandemic all hit roadblocks. Politics may well have played a part, with the well-known frosty relations between the Orbán government and the Biden administration casting a shadow. Be that as it may, by 2026, at least two direct flights to the American continent from Budapest have been announced: passengers can jet off to Philadelphia aboard American Airlines planes, while Air Canada will whisk travellers to the Canadian city of Toronto from May and June onwards, respectively.

And there’s more! Uzbekistan’s Qanot Sharq airline is eager to operate direct flights this summer between the Hungarian capital, Tashkent, and New York. They’d use Budapest as an intermediate stop, meaning passengers could board in the Hungarian capital too – effectively creating that long-coveted direct Budapest-New York connection.

Wizz Air gears up for US skies

At the very least, its UK-based subsidiary, Wizz Air UK, has already submitted a permit application for both scheduled and charter flights to the United States, according to Budflyer. The filing seeks approval to operate services between cities in the United Kingdom and one or more locations in the US.

According to the application, they initially plan to run only charter flights. However, citing the Open Skies Agreement between the two nations, they’re already requesting full access to all associated rights. This would allow them to flexibly launch scheduled services in the future, adapting to evolving market conditions without needing to file fresh applications. They justify this by saying they don’t want to burden the US Department of Transportation’s precious time and resources with repeat requests.

Earlier Asian ambitions crash-landed

Wizz Air previously nurtured bold expansion plans in Asia, eyeing flights to India, Southeast Asia, and even Central Asia with its newly acquired long-range Airbus A321XLR aircraft. The company blamed the region’s unstable security landscape and extreme heat for scrapping those ideas by mid-to-late 2025. Experts point out that failing to crack open those markets played a role, too. Others highlight troubles with Pratt & Whitney engines, which grounded dozens of the airline’s planes.

That said, they’re pressing ahead with plans to open bases in Israel‘s Tel Aviv and Eilat in March.

Before the pandemic, CEO József Váradi listed US routes among his goals. Post-pandemic – and especially after the 2025 U-turn – he repeatedly stressed building a Central and Eastern European-focused carrier. In his most recent interview with G7 at the start of January, he didn’t mention transatlantic flights at all.

Yet this latest application hints that Wizz Air might just take to those routes after all in the coming years.