Central and Eastern European low-cost airline specialist, Wizz Air has revealed a further growth of its low fare route network from its largest base at Budapest’s Ferenc Liszt International Airport in Hungary. Wizz Air will add flights to Ibiza, Liverpool and Reykjavik, in the process expanding its offering from Hungary to 23 countries.
The new routes will commence from the start of the summer schedules in late March 2016 with the introduction of twice weekly flights to both John Lennon Airport in Liverpool and Keflavik International Airport, serving Reykjavik from March 27, 2016.
Liverpool will be the fourth UK destination that Wizz Air will link to the Hungarian capital after London Luton, Birmingham and Glasgow. This will mark the resurrection of direct air services on the route following the closure of Ryanair’s operation in March 2009. The Irish budget carrier had launched flights in October 2007, initially on a four times weekly basis, but cut to a twice weekly rotation before closing the route.
Wizz Air has served Liverpool for more than ten years commencing operations at John Lennon Airport in late 2004 with flights to the Polish capital of Warsaw and the Baltic coastal city of Gdansk, also in Poland. The airline increased its capacity on both these routes last year as well as commencing flights to Riga, the capital city of Latvia. Last year Wizz Air increased its passenger throughput at Liverpool by over 60 per cent carrying over 40,000 more passengers than in 2014.
Reykjavik will be a new destination from Budapest and will add to Wizz Air’s flights to the Atlantic Ocean island from Gdansk and Warsaw. The destination is emerging as an increasingly popular tourist destination, thanks to various cultural events and places of interest.
The third new route to Ibiza, another new destination to be linked to Budapest on a scheduled basis, will commence on June 18, 2016 and will operate on a weekly summer-only basis through to September 17, 2016. This is the period of peak demand to the Balearic Island for the renowned beach parties and electronic music festivals the Mediterranean island has become known.
Since Wizz Air inaugurated operations in 2004 it has carried almost 16 million passengers on its Hungarian route network, while closing 2015 with a record of 2.9 million passengers carried on its routes to and from the country.
“The newest routes give our passengers a great choice of summer vacation destinations, as well as attract more tourists to Hungary and help further establish Budapest’s position of being one of the best cities in the world," said József Váradi, Chief Executive Officer of Wizz Air.
Wizz Air has grown year-on-year capacity from Budapest by a double-digit rate in each of the last eight years. Between 2006 and 2015 to boosted its departure network from just over 400,000 annual seats in 2006 to over 1.6 million seats last year, an average annual rise of 34.4 per cent.
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