Hungary’s Wizz Air to promote tourism

Wizz Air services to Al Maktoum International Airport will bring economic benefits to the UAE and European countries as it will promote tourism and create more job opportunities, its chief executive officer József Váradi told Khaleej Times on Sunday.

The largest low-cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe became the launch customer of the new airport’s passenger terminal when its first flight arrived on Sunday morning.

“We are very excited to be the very first low-cost carrier serving the Dubai market. We are even more exited to be part of this historical opening of Al Maktoum International Airport,” Váradi said after the passenger terminal opening.

“We think it is a great airport with very significant potential for the future and we would like to be part of the development and we would like to contribute to it. We are here for the long run we actually like the location and development plan of the airport. We think we will be having a long-term commitment to the airport,” he explained.

Earlier, this year the budget carrier announced that it will start services to the Dubai’s new airport from Budapest (Hungary), Bucharest (Romania), Kiev (Ukraine) and Sofia (Bulgaria).

When asked for the future growth plans of the carrier out of the new airport, he said: “We are here to celebrate those four routes. In terms of growth and expansion, it’s business as usual for us. We continue to evaluate our performance on existing routes and also continue to look at new market opportunities. Once we conclude on those matters we would be making the announcement.”

Talking about the challenges versus full services airlines, he said: “We are meeting a universal customer need. Efficient flying and low-cost travel are something people want universally. We fly 35 countries with the same business model being very efficient and very low fare to the market. This has been working all those market, so we think it will here as well.”

To another questions, he said: “I think competition is certainly good for customers as it drives efficiency, fare down and people look us as a lower cost travel. I think this is also good for airlines themselves. They are more on their toes on a long-term basis and be more efficient.”

He mentioned that Wizz Air is bringing rock bottom air fares to the market that will boost tourism and create many new jobs. Flying between Europe and Dubai for as low as Dh349 is truly unprecedented.

“I expect Wizz Air will carry at least 250,000 passengers on our UAE network in the first year of operations. I anticipate we will announce more exciting routes and more low fares to Dubai as we move forward with our expansion,” he said.

The airline, which is recording a double-digit growth in passenger numbers, carried 12 million passengers last year. “We will continue to maintain our growth in 2013,” the chief executive said.

The airline operates more than 290 routes in 35 countries with 95 destinations. When asked about touching 100^th destination, he said: “Very soon. We open five to ten destinations each year. So it’s going to come quickly.

The airline fleet size is 45 Airbus A320 and “we have 70 aircraft in the pipeline for deliveries. Some of the aircraft are A321 and rest A320.