Wizz Air to have its largest base in this Eastern European city

Wizz Air has more than twice as many aircraft based in Romania as in Hungary. In fact, the Hungarian low-cost carrier’s biggest base will be in Bucharest from next June.

From June 2024, Wizz Air will send two more Airbus A321neo aircraft to Bucharest. This will make the Romanian capital the largest base for the Hungarian-backed low-cost carrier, Romania Insider reports. Wizz is already the market leader in Romania by the number of passengers carried.

Wizz Air will start flights to Leipzig next summer, bringing to 21 the number of routes from Bucharest, where it has 19 aircraft. In Hungary, 14 aircraft are parked in Budapest and one in Debrecen. Meanwhile, in Romania, a total of 36 aircraft are parked at one of the six bases, Mandiner writes based on Romania Insider.

Another good news is that the company has opened a logistics centre in Bucharest. This means that it no longer has to transport parts from Poland for maintenance.

Wizz Air aims to be Romania’s “national airline”

Earlier, Romania complained to the European Aviation Safety Agency against the Hungarian low-cost carrier for cancelling nine flights in one day for technical reasons (read details HERE). József Váradi, the low-cost carrier’s CEO, told a press conference on Tuesday that the company had had to pay out almost EUR 100 million in compensation for the cancellations during the summer months, according to a report of Krónika.

“Of course, we have no intention of cancelling flights, but if we have to do so, we will comply with European regulations and compensate passengers. We appreciate and respect their rights,”

the Wizz Air CEO said. However, he added that Wizz did not cancel any of its Romania flights in September.

A year ago, József Váradi once said that they wanted to become Romania’s national airline. Today, they are the absolute market leader in the country, with a current market share of 54%.

Serious difficulties in store for Wizz

Despite no cancelled flights in September, it will not be an easy time for Wizz. The temporary loss of aircraft due to engine overhauls will result in a capacity reduction of around 10% for the airline. We wrote about this in detail HERE.

Read also:

• BREAKING: Wizz Air suspends flights from Budapest, Debrecen urgently today!
• New EU regulation could ruin Wizz Air and Ryanair