Wizz Air is further expanding its presence in Georgia next summer by launching five new routes and increasing frequencies on four more.
The carrier made its debut in the Georgian market in October 2012 when its former Wizz Air Ukraine division inaugurated flights from Kyiv to Kutaisi (KUT). It then made the airport a base in September 2016.
From June 2023, Wizz plans to station an additional Airbus A321neo in Kutaisi, taking the number of aircraft based at the airport to three. The growth will enable the airline to begin flying to five new destinations, increasing its network from Georgia’s third-largest city to 27 routes.
Flights to Frankfurt Hahn (HHN) will start on June 1, followed by Hamburg (HAM) the next day. Two more routes will begin on June 3, to Brussels Charleroi (CRL) and Poznan (POZ), with Madrid (MAD) service commencing on June 4. All five routes will be offered twice a week.
In addition, frequencies will be increased to Memmingen (FMM), Milan Malpensa (MXP), Paris Beauvais (BVA) and Prague (PRG).
OAG data shows that Wizz is the largest carrier operating in Georgia’s market by capacity during 2022, offering some 372,853 departure seats. This gives the airline a 14.2% capacity share, putting it ahead of Turkish Airlines on 12.9%.
The latest schedules for summer 2023—filed before Wizz announced the expansion of its Kutaisi base—show that the carrier intends to offer more than 475,000 departure seats from Georgia during the season, compared with the previous record of 281,000 during summer 2019.
Overall, Wizz said it expects to provide in excess of 800,000 seats from the country in 2023.
Kutaisi is the second-largest airport in the former Soviet republic by departure seats, accounting for about 19.2% of capacity. Tbilisi (TBS) is the largest with about 68% of the market and Batumi (BUS) has the remaining 12.8%.
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