Wizz Air will resume flights from Ukraine as soon as the war stops
12 February 13:16
Wizz Air plans to resume flights to Ukraine shortly after any ceasefire with Russia is announced. The company will resume about 30 routes within six weeks. This was announced in an interview with Reuters by Wizz Air CEO Joseph Varadi, Komersant ukrainskyi reports.
“We have a clear plan to restart in Ukraine, because I think it can happen at any time. As soon as the ceasefire is announced, we will consider our relaunch,”
– varadi said.
According to him, the European Aviation Safety Agency estimates that it will take six to eight weeks to safely reopen Ukrainian airspace, and Wizz Air is preparing for this.
After that, within six months of the conflict ending, Wizz Air will re-establish its operating bases in Kyiv and Lviv, Varadi said. The company will focus on providing an annual capacity of about 5 million seats per year on the Ukrainian market on 60 routes.
Before the war, in 2021, the low-cost airline was ranked third in the Ukrainian market with a 10.1% share.
Another low-cost airline , Ryanair, has also announced that it will start flying to Ukraine after the war ends.
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How is Wizz Air doing?
Wizz Air lowered its annual net profit forecast for the second time in six months in January due to higher costs associated with the downtime of about 20% of its fleet due to engine problems and economic uncertainty.
However, Varadi expects the economic outlook to improve and capacity to increase by about 20% in fiscal 2025, thanks to the expected delivery of 50 new Airbus aircraft from April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026.
“This is a significant source of growth, and we are also recovering some aircraft grounded due to engine problems. They will return to service,”
– he said.
“So if you look at the next two years in terms of capacity, we will be able to add about 80 flight lines.”
– he added.
