Wizz Air continues its search for an investor-partner in Saudi Arabia to create an airline similar to Wizz Air Abu Dhabi. But the Airbus A321XLR also creates good opportunities for the Hungary-based low-cost carrier.
“We’re looking at it, evaluating it, but we need to find an investment partner who wants to work with us,” Wizz Air chairman Robert Carey told me in Vienna earlier this week. “It should be a joint venture structure to be a national airline.”
Wizz Air plans to launch 20 routes to Saudi Arabia from 11 European cities to expand its operations there. “Three routes will come in 2023”,
Robert Carey, President of Wizz Air
Saudi Arabia sees the growth of its aviation industry as a key component of its Saudi Vision 2030 plan, a strategic framework to reduce the country’s dependence on oil revenue and diversify its economy. “If you look at the aspiration with the Vision 2030 goal, the nation is trying to triple the number of passengers flying to 100 million,” Carey explained.
Carey noted that Wizz Air and Saudi Arabia share ambitions. “They (Saudi Arabia) are talking about an 18% growth rate from today, our fleet plan growth is 18%,” he said. “So we are very similar.”
Wizz Air Abu Dhabi
As for Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, which launched in January 2021, four aircraft are currently based there. “The carrier operates about 30 routes and we will grow to eight aircraft over the winter,” Carey said. “Our last itinerary announcement was for flights [from Abu Dhabi] in the Maldives and Kazakhstan. Other markets are coming, such as Pakistan.
Wizz Air Abu Dhabi may operate around 50 aircraft in the future. The Wizz Air Group itself has targeted a fleet of 500 aircraft by the end of the decade. “About 100 to 125 aircraft are dedicated to the East [from Eastern Europe eastward]where Abu Dhabi would be a core,” Casey said.
Regarding traffic rights from Abu Dhabi, as it is not an open market, Carey said it was more complicated, and Wizz Air continues to learn. As a result, Carey says the airline needs to think about how to approach bilateral markets “to make sure we have access.”
Carey also sees room for growth for Wizz Air in Africa, primarily as flights to North African and West African destinations from Italy or Abu Dhabi. Carey said one of the issues with opening up traffic to the mainland is that “most countries have bilateral restrictions.”
Regarding the Russian-Ukrainian war and the closure of Russian airspace, the two markets accounted for 7% of Wizz Air’s total capacity. However, due to the closure of Russian airspace, some routes have been suspended, such as Budapest-Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan and Warsaw-Abu Dhabi.
Difficult winter ahead
Looking ahead, Carey expects a tough winter. “No doubt there will be high fuel prices, economic downturns and inflation,” he said. “Consumers have become very cost sensitive.”
Revenues will be under pressure as customers seek more profitable deals, he added. “That suits us very well, as we are lower cost providers, being the airline with the lowest costs in Europe,” Carey said. “There have been other crises, but we know the playbook.”
A321XLR eastboundNot West
Robert told me that Wizz Air expects to take delivery of its first Airbus A321XLR in 2024, with plans to operate the type primarily on routes to the Middle East and Central Asia.
“We have 47 A321XLRs on order, and we are delighted with them,” he said. “We see the plane heading mainly east, not west.”
Carey says Wizz Air is not interested in joining the transatlantic market at this time as the Budapest-based ULCC sees many untapped opportunities in the Eastern Hemisphere, “particularly from the end of our network , for instance. [routes] from the UK to the Middle East, which are out of reach [of the current fleet].”
Operation of the A321XLR will allow flights from the UK to Pakistan or Central Asian destinations such as cities in Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan, where connectivity is increasingly important, notes Wizz Chairman Air.
With subsidiary Wizz Air Abu Dhabi operating the A321XLR, “you can fly almost as far as South Africa or Singapore, creating huge network opportunities. There is no shortage of markets with this aircraft,” says Carey.
He sees the transatlantic market differently. “The transatlantic is very difficult to break through, as we saw with the Norwegian. The big three [European legacy] airline groups – Lufthansa, IAG, Air France-KLM – can easily crush you with their joint ventures.
Wizz Air also operates an A330F for the Hungarian government, which could be used on North Atlantic routes. “It’s not even a market we serve on a regular basis now,” he says. “We don’t have an operating license…for flights to the United States”
In late July, the US Department of Transportation denied an application by Wizz Air for a foreign air carrier permit, citing “safety oversight”.
Carey says the A321neo has become particularly crucial for Wizz Air. “It’s our main plane and we already have 65 in the fleet,” he says. “Speaking of operational costs, there are 239 seats in the A321neo. When we compare them to our A321ceo, the neo offers us a 20-25% reduction in base costs.
Around 90% of the Wizz Air Group’s new aircraft deliveries will be A321neos. There are also a few A320neos on order, which will be needed to operate on short runways, for example from Dortmund, Germany, with a 2,000 m (1.2 mi) runway.
Wizz Air operates 165 aircraft on a total of more than 1,000 routes to 52 countries. “By next summer, we will have 190 to 195 aircraft in our fleet depending on Airbus delivery schedules,” Carey predicts.
Carey says the Wizz Air Group carried 42 million passengers before the COVID-19 pandemic. “We expect 55 million passengers this year.” The Wizz Air group includes Wizz Air UK, Wizz Air Hungary, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi and, from October, Wizz Air Malta. From December 5, all aircraft based in Vienna will be transferred to the Maltese register.
The LCC has contracts in place to grow its fleet to 379 planes by fiscal year 2028 and expects 500 planes by the end of the decade, Carey says. “Half of this fleet could be registered in Malta,” he says.
I met Carey in Vienna where he announced the increase in the number of Vienna-based aircraft to five from four A321neos by December. Wizz Air offers 37 routes to 24 countries from Vienna. Three new destinations from Vienna will be Funchal, the capital of the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira, and Jeddah and Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. Frequencies will also be increased on some existing routes.
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