Wizz Air is expanding its operations in Austria’s capital with the stationing of a fifth aircraft in Vienna (VIE) and the launch of three new routes.
An additional Airbus A321neo will join the base from December, enabling the Hungarian ULCC to open new services to Madeira (FNC), Riyadh (RUH) and Jeddah (JED).
The airline began flying from the airport in April 2018 following the insolvency of Niki’s parent Air Berlin. It now offers to 37 routes to 24 countries from the base.
“The expansion of the Wizz Air base in Vienna is a strong signal for the airport location and will offer passengers even more choice of destinations in the future,” said Julian Jäger, member of the management board of Flughafen Wien. “The strong summer season has shown that the development at Vienna Airport is very positive.”
Wizz will begin the Madeira route on Dec. 3, operating 1X-weekly, and start flying to Jedda twice a week from Dec. 13. A route to Riyadh will follow on Dec. 15, also operating 2X-weekly.
The ULCC announced plans in August to launch 20 new routes from Saudi Arabia to destinations in Europe, including the two to Vienna. Service between Vienna and Dammam (DMM) will also start on Sept. 30, operating twice a week.
In addition to new destinations, Wizz is increasing frequencies on a number of other routes. Service from Vienna to London Gatwick (LGW) will rise from 12X-weekly to 14X-weekly by mid-October, while Tenerife (TFS) Nis (INI) will each receive three flights per week from December, up from 2X-weekly at the present time.
OAG data for the week commencing Aug. 29 shows that Wizz is the third largest carrier at Vienna behind Austrian Airlines and Ryanair. Austrian has 183,863 departure seats available for a 48.9% capacity share of the market. Ryanair has 71,055 for 18.9% and Wizz has 22,452 for 6%.
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