Will Wizz Air fly to US, Canada destinations in 2025? – the President answered
President Robert Carey gave an interview to AeroTelegraph, a German air travel media outlet. He talked about the expansion plans of the Hungarian low-cost airline, their operation in Ukraine, the problems with the Pratt & Whitney engines and where Wizz Air would like to fly with its new A321 XLR planes.
50 Wizz Air planes on the ground due to engine problems
Mr Carey said that they were able to solve the problems arising after the breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, 2024 will be a year without further growth because of the problems of the Pratt & Whitney engines.
He said 50 of their planes are currently on the ground due to the reparation process, so they must be super efficient to maintain their flight programme. He added that it took almost six months to identify the real problems.
He said they ordered 330 aircraft from Airbus and they would get them with minor delays.
New destinations with the new, long-haul aircraft
Carey highlighted that the first A321 XLR was scheduled to fly in March 2025. The budget airline has not yet announced its destinations. Carey said they had large bases in the West, but the markets were in the East. Therefore, they would turn to North Africa and Asia. As an example, he mentioned that the new plane could fly from Abu Dhabi to Singapore.
He cleared they had many goals in the East, but Transatlantic destinations were not on the agenda.
Concerning their expansion in Eastern Europe, Carey said the expansion potential is greater in the East than in the West of the continent. That is because 50% fewer people fly in Eastern Europe than in Western Europe.
They want to be market leaders again in Ukraine
Concerning Ukraine, he expressed their will to return the moment the war ends. He said they were the leading airline in the country before the Russian invasion and planned to hold that title after the end of the violence. He added they had four planes stationed at the moment of the Russian attack. One from Lviv could leave the country, but three remained in Kyiv. They removed their engines and used them in other aircraft.
Concerning staff problems, Carey said they struggled with difficulties before. However, their cadet programs helped a lot. That is why they opened a new school in Rome.
Robert Carey has been working as President of Wizz Air since 2021.
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No low cost airline wants to fly across the Atlantic due to the wafer thin margins on Economy seats and a market completely saturated by European and US carriers. The sole appeal to carriers like Norse is the relatively short flying time versus alternative destinations in Asia but even they’re having a tough time. You just can’t rival the frequencies of the existing carriers, nor can you materially go below their lead-in fares without generating a loss. The singular exception is Play, an Icelandic carrier that uses Iceland’s location mid-way between Europe and North America, offering the chance of an extended Icelandic stopover for those so inclined. The mid-way point also allows them to use standard range A320 aircraft that are cheap and plentiful on the used market, no need for hard-to-get long haul airframes, or to join the back of the queue for the A321 XLR. No, Wizz Air has far better opportunities to connect parts of the world with plentiful demand yet no meaningful low cost aviation, creating a bridge between Europe and places that are currently expensive to fly to. North America isn’t one of these.