Airways Magazine

LONDON – European low-cost carrier Wizz Air announced a $120 million investment into the expansion of its base in Bucharest. The carrier will be basing one additional Airbus A321 aircraft in the Romanian capital, as well as launching two all-new routes.

This means that through the additional Airbus A321 being added, Bucharest will have 11 of Wizz Air’s aircraft based there, offering a total capacity of 4.3 million seats for the 2019 season. 

The first new service will be to Memmingen, Germany, which will operate three times per week on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from April 2 next year.

The second will be Castellón in Spain, which will operate two times per week on Wednesdays and Sundays from April 3 next year. 

Commenting on the expansion was Johan Eidhagen, Wizz Air’s CMO who labeled this as “yet another milestone in Bucharest.” Eidhagen noted about how the $120 investment will create 42 additional jobs with the carrier as well as this strategy resulting in a strong “commitment to Romania”. 

The new aircraft will allow for frequency updates on six of Wizz Air’s routes from Bucharest. The frequency changes are as follows:

This now means that going into the 2019 season, Wizz Air will have up to 141 routes from Romania from its 10 airports within 30 countries. 

The first ten months of 2018 saw the carrier carry more than seven million passengers on its low fare routes to and from Romania, which is a 13% increase year-over-year. 

Over 5,000 jobs are provided by Wizz Air in this country, making them a significant market leader. Bucharest operations have been in place for the last six years and have managed to grow the presence in Romania to a significant point for tourism and business alike.

It will be interesting to see how well these new routes will do as well as whether we will see anymore frequency upgrades for the Summer season overall. 

90