Wizz Air

Foundation and expansion

The airline was established in September 2003. The lead investor is Indigo Partners, an American private equity firm specialising in transportation investments. The first flight was made from Katowice International Airport on 19 May 2004. The airline's CEO is József Váradi, former CEO of Malév Hungarian Airlines. The company is registered in Pest County, Hungary.On 25 February 2015, Wizz Air shares began trading on the London Stock Exchange.In November 2017, Wizz Air announced its planned launch of a British division called Wizz Air UK, based at London Luton mainly to take advantage of landing slots acquired when Monarch Airlines entered administration that year. The airline applied successfully to the CAA for an AOC and a Type A Operating Licence. The airline launched operations in March 2018 using British registered aircraft. Wizz Air UK was to start taking over UK-bound flights previously operated by Wizz Air, and plans called for the airline to employ up to 100 staff by the end of 2018.In November 2018, Wizz Air announced plans to reactivate its Wizz Air Ukraine subsidiary, approximately three years after its closure. The airline would seek to complete certification in 2019 following the acquisition of twenty A320/321 neo jets. Bases were to be developed in Kyiv and cities across the country, with a planned passenger throughput of 6 million per annum by 2025.

Pandemic and survival

By early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic created a case of force majeure in European aviation, gradually forcing airline fleets to land, including the majority of Wizz Air aircraft. Although it was announced in March that no redundancies were planned, one-fifth of the staff was redeemed when it became clear that air travel across the continent was shutting down. In April 2020, based on passenger numbers, Wizz Air became Europe's largest low-cost airline with 78,000 passengers. By mid-June, they had reached 40 percent of their previous year's normal weekly revenue, while the proportion of no-shows fell from 80 percent in April to 30 percent. In July 2020, the airline announced that it will form a joint venture with the Abu Dhabi Developmental Holding Company.In October 2020, Wizz took delivery of an A330-200F cargo aircraft , operating it on behalf of the Hungarian Government as 'Hungary Air Cargo'. The same month, it announced that its first Scandinavian base would be opened at Oslo's Gardermoen Airport in November 2020; the two aircraft based there would also undertake domestic flights within Norway. However, ticket sales for domestic flights after 13 June 2021 were subsequently stopped.In 2020, Wizz Air carried a total of 16.6 million passengers, 42 per cent of the 40 million passengers of the previous year. At the same time, the airline also tried to view the pandemic as an opportunity, opening 260 new routes and 13 bases, one of them at London's second largest airport, Gatwick.In the spring of 2021, as the third wave of the coronavirus epidemic arrived, the airline's CEO pitched Wizz Air to investors as a "rare ray of investment hope". He said that he hoped that air transport would be restored by 2024–2025, and that he was confident that Wizz Air would be the only airline to continue its investments, made possible by the fact that it had the highest liquidity in the entire airline industry.Wizz Air has prioritised fleet development and airport construction in its investments, with the opening of Bra?ov Airport planned for November 2022.

Renewed expansion

On 3 February 2021, Wizz Air announced the opening of its second base in Bosnia and Herzegovina, after Tuzla; the airline would open a base at Sarajevo with one Airbus A320. The airline announced nine new destinations from Sarajevo with 21 weekly departures.In April 2021, as planned, Wizz Air added Abu Dhabi to its services, offering connections to Europe beyond the UAE to neighbouring Arab countries.By July 2021, Wizz Air had reached their 2019 capacity. Their plan was to develop their fleet of 140 aircraft to a capacity of 500 by the end of the decade.In August 2021, company management announced that they plan to hire 4,600 new pilots by 2030, with the first part of their plan to train and hire nearly 500 pilots by the end of 2021.In September 2021, rival low-cost carrier EasyJet claimed it had rejected a takeover offer from Wizz Air.On 14 November 2021, on the first day of the Dubai Airshow, Wizz Air was one of four airlines that ordered additional A321neo jets. Wizz Air is due to receive a total of 75 A321neo and 27 A321XLRs, adding up to 102 new aircraft.In May 2022, Wizz Air said it had signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Investment to collaborate on potential investment and operating models to boost the country's tourism industry and increase its connectivity. The same month, the company announced its intention to form a subsidiary in Malta, named Wizz Air Malta. In August 2022, it was announced that former Ryanair executive Diarmuid O Conghaile would join the newly formed company as managing director from 1 November 2022.

War situation

Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, four Wizz Air aircraft were stranded in Ukraine, three in Kyiv and one in Lviv.Flying was curtailed for two weeks by the outbreak of war, but Wizz Air soon returned to normal operations with the exception of the Ukrainian and Russian markets, which remained suspended.In March 2022, amid the invasion, Wizz Air provided 100,000 free airline tickets to refugees for short-distance flights from Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania.