Leipzig, Salzburg and Budapest - three new destinations offered by Wizz Air

Starting this spring, the Wizz Air airline offers three new travel destinations for passengers departing from Bucharest, announced yesterday, in an informal meeting with the press, the representatives of the air transport operator.

Thus, from April 1, flights will be operated on the Bucharest-Salzburg route and return, from June 17, 2024, the Bucharest-Budapest and return route will be operational, and from June 20, 2024, travelers will also be able to reach Germany via the Bucharest route -Leipzig.

Regarding the destinations in Germany, we remind you that a month ago, the WizzAir company launched the offer for the supporters of the national team of Romania who want to participate in the stadium in the matches that our team will support in the final tournament of the European Championship 2024. The flights will be operated from Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca on the 17th, 22nd and 26th of June to Munich, Cologne and Frankfurt - cities where the Romanian national football team will play the games in group E from Euro 2024. Football fans who want to support the team national team at the stadium can buy fixed-price tickets from today on the Wizz Air website and the airline's mobile app.

Since the launch of the offer until now we have sold a very large number of tickets on flights departing from Bucharest and Cluj Napoca and we urge supporters who want to go to the Euro 2024 final tournament to buy these tickets quickly because there are still very few left in stock, Valeria Bragarenco, Corporate Communications Manager at Wizz Air, told us.

During the informal meeting attended by Andras Rado, Senior Manager Corporate Communications of the respective company, in addition to other representatives of Wizz Air, the balance sheet of the air transport operator's activity for the past year was presented, a document from which we note that they were transport 60.3 million passengers with its 201 aircraft, that the company has more than 8,000 employees and that it is in a continuous development of its activity. The number of passengers carried by Wizz Air during the past year is 32% higher than in 2022, in 2023 100 new routes were opened, 32 new Airbus 320 and Airbus 321 aircraft were taken over and a rate of 99, 31% regarding the actual realization of the scheduled races. Moreover, the company states that carbon emissions have been reduced by 6.8% compared to 2022, with an emission of 53.8 grams for each passenger transported, which places WizzAir in first place in Europe in terms of air transport sustainability, far surpassing the big airlines, such as Lufthansa, British Airways or similar companies such as Ryanair. Andras Rado specified that at the moment sustainable fuels are four times more expensive than the fuel used by the company, that they are produced in small quantities, insufficient for the consumption of the fleet owned by the air transport operator, but despite this last year Wizz Air used a fuel mix of which 33% was eco fuel, on six aircraft that are operated in Budapest, and the air races were carried out in optimal conditions

Regarding the flights operated by Wizz Air in our country, from last year's balance sheet we note that 13.7 million passengers were transported, 25.5% more than in 2022, 66,000 flights were made ( +27% compared to the year 2022), which means approximately 5600 flights per month, that the respective operator has a market share of almost 51%, all this being done with only 1600 employees, of which 1500 are flight attendants and pilots.

Related to travel destinations, most (58%) are made to the workplace or to visit family or relatives, but their percentage is decreasing by 2% compared to 2022, which shows that part of the travelers they returned to the country or reunited their family. 20% of the number of trips represent city breaks, and the rest are tourist or business travelers.

The Wizz Air company also noticed a change in tourist destinations in 2023. Thus, if in the summer of 2022 Romanian citizens went on vacation to Israel, Malta and the United Arab Emirates, in the summer of 2023 the preferred tourist destinations were Cyprus, Greece, Portugal and Norway. Regarding winter holidays, Romanians who traveled in 2023 with Wizz Air preferred to arrive in the United Arab Emirates, Greece, the Czech Republic and Switzerland, unlike in the winter of 202 when the preferred tourist destinations were Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark and Israel.

Regarding the cancellations or rescheduling of some air flights, starting from April the Wizz Air company will put into operation an application based on Artificial Intelligence which, in case of serious disruption of air traffic or flight cancellations, will call passengers who have purchased tickets on the airline's website to inform them of the respective events and to inform them of their rights according to each situation (e.g. - reimbursement of the ticket cost, rescheduling of the flight, provision of hotel accommodation until the next flight operated by the company, etc.).

Moreover, the company's representatives told us that Wizz Air has started an extensive process of acquiring spare aircraft that can be used immediately in case a scheduled flight cannot take off for various technical reasons. For example, in the next period, more than 30 new Airbus aircraft will enter the air fleet of Wizz Air, which have the role of replacing the almost 40 aircraft that are on the ground, for various technical reasons.