Wizz Air

Wizz Air is a low cost airline based in Budapest, Hungary. The airline operates a fleet of 169 aircraft on flights in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. The airline carried 45.6 million passengers in 2022.

 History 
Wizz Air was founded in 2003 by József Váradi, the former CEO of Malev Hungarian Airlines. The airline's first flight took off in May 2004.

The company joined the London Stock Exchange in February 2015.

At the 2015 Paris Airshow Wizz Air announced an order for 110 Airbus A321neos. It placed additional orders for 146 aircraft at the 2017 and 102 aircraft at the 2021 Dubai Airshows.  Additionly, at the 2019 Paris Airshow the airline ordered 20 Airbus A321XLRs. 

In October 2017 the airline announced it would be setting up a new London Luton based subsidiary named Wizz Air UK. At the time the airline stated that the reason was to make sure its UK operations were secure in the event of a hard Brexit.

In December 2019 the airline announced that it would be setting up a subsidiary in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi. Named Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, the new airline operated its first flight in January 2021.

In May 2022 the airline announced the launch of a subsidiary based in Malta, named Wizz Air Malta. The airline launched operations in November 2022.

As of September 2023 the airline has 187 aircraft in its fleet, with an additional 345 aircraft on order.

In November 2023, the 4 dismissed a challenge from budget airline Wizz Air regarding a capital increase provided by the Romanian government to its competitor, TAROM. The aid, amounting to 2 million euros, was approved by the European Commission to help offset financial losses due to COVID-19 travel restrictions. Wizz Air argued that the subsidy breached EU competition rules, but the court upheld the European Commission’s decision, stating that the support complied with EU state aid regulations. 

Destinations

References

Category:Organizations based in Budapest
Category:Airlines of Europe
Category:Companies of Hungary