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Wizz Air

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Wizz Air
IATA ICAO Call sign
W6 WZZ WIZZ AIR
Founded2003
Operating bases
Fleet size34 (+ 98 orders)
Destinations63
HeadquartersVecsés, Hungary
Key peopleJózsef Váradi (CEO)
Christopher Collins (COO)
Websitehttp://www.wizzair.com/

Wizz Air Hungary Légiközlekedési Kft. is a Hungarian[1][2] low-cost airline with headquarters in the Airport Business Park C2 in Vecsés, close to Budapest Ferihegy International Airport, Hungary.[3] The airline typically uses secondary airports serving many cities across Europe. As of 18.00 GMT Saturday 25th September, the Wizzair website is not working. Whether this is temporary or not is currently unknown

History

The airline was established in September 2003. The lead investor is Indigo Partners, an American private equity firm [4] specializing in transportation investments. The first flight was made on 19 May 2004 from Katowice, 19 days after Poland and Hungary entered the European Union and the single European aviation market. The airline carried 250,000 passengers in its first three and a half months, almost 1.4 million passengers in the first year of operations and to date, 10 million passengers. In 2007 Wizz Air carried 2.8 million passengers on its Polish routes.

The airline's CEO and chairman is József Váradi, former CEO of Malév Hungarian Airlines. The company is registered in Pest County (Hungary)[5] with operating subsidiaries in Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria. Wizz Air Bulgaria was established in September 2005[6].

József Váradi, Chief Executive Officer of Wizz Air, won the Ernst & Young award of the 'Brave Innovator' in 2007. The prize recognized the break through in the airline business in Hungary and the region, the business model and the business conduct of Wizz Air.[citation needed]

In summer 2008 Wizz Air became the first low cost carrier in Ukraine.[citation needed]

Financial Performance

While attempting to hasten SkyEurope's demise in June 2009, Wizz Air claimed it had been "profitable for several years".[7] However, as a private company it is not required to publish its financial accounts.In 2009 the airline made a record by gaining 2 million euros in ticket sales and onboard services in one single day.

Destinations

A Wizz Air Bulgaria Airbus A320-200 departs London Luton Airport, England
Bulgarian-registered Airbus A320-200 takes off from Luton Airport
Airbus A320-200 boarding at Bucharest's Baneasa airport before departing for Luton
Further information: Wizz Air destinations

Wizz Air prefers to land at smaller or secondary airports to reduce costs and fees.

Wizz Air started new services between Katowice and London Gatwick in 2008[8]. Winter destinations from Warsaw are Milan Bergamo and Grenoble. In January 2008, flights started from Gdansk to Goteborg, Bournemouth and Coventry.

In summer 2008, Wizz Air restarted the summer only services from Katowice and Budapest to Girona, as well as a new weekly service to Girona from Gdańsk. Other summer services from Budapest are Heraklion, Corfu, Burgas and Varna, from Katowice to Crete-Heraklion and Burgas, Warsaw to Corfu and Burgas. They also restarted the three-times weekly service from London Luton to Burgas.

On 2 October 2008, Wizz Air announced that a number of their Romania services would have increased frequency following an order for three Airbus A320 aircraft[9]. Services began 15 February 2009 from Timisoara, on 1 March 2009 from Bucharest, and 1 May 2009 from Cluj-Napoca.

Wizz Air Romania

  • Wizz Air offers destinations from the Romanian cities, Wizz Air has 3 bases at Bucharest, Cluj and Timişoara. It competes closely against Blue Air, a local low-cost carrier.
Further information: Wizz Air Romania destinations

Wizz Air Ukraine

  • The Ukrainian division of Wizz Air has 1 international base at Kiev.
Further information: Wizz Air Ukraine destinations

Wizz Air Bulgaria

From May 22, 2010 start flights from Sofia to Madrid, Paris (Beauvais), Bologna (Forlì), Frankfurt (Hahn).

Wizz Air has 1 international base at Sofia

Further information: Wizz Air Bulgaria destinations

Wizz Air considers to start flights from Plovdiv shortly. [10]

Service quality

According to customer reviews, Wizz Air is a 2 star airline, making it comparable to airlines like Ryanair, bmibaby, S7 Airlines and Aerosvit Airlines.[11][12] Calls to the customer service department cost 0.75 GBP per minute, according to Wizz Air's own homepage,[13] and controversially Wizz Air also maintains that it takes more than 90 days to process customer complaint emails[13][failed verification] Available statistics show that just 74% flights were on time, with 26% arriving late or being cancelled. Specifically, 8% were classed as being 'late', 3% 'very late', 9% 'excessively late', and 2% cancelled completely.[14]

Fleet

The Wizz Air fleet consists of the following aircraft (as of 25 September 2010)[15]

Wizz Air Fleet
Aircraft Total Orders Passengers
Airbus A320-232 34 132 180

29 aircrafts operate under Wizz Air Hungary (a further 3 for Wizz Air Bulgaria and 2 for Wizz Air Ukraine). It has firm orders for 80 Airbus A320s.[16] All its A320s are powered by International Aero Engines V2500 engines, including those to be leased from GECAS. The 99.5% technical dispatch reliability is well above the world average.[citation needed] Maintenance is by the Lufthansa Technik maintenance organization.[17]

On 10 October 2007, Wizz Air confirmed an order for a further 50 Airbus A320 aircraft bringing its total commitments of that type up to 80 and an option for further 25 A320s.[18]

During the 2009 Paris Air Show, Wizz Air signed a letter of intent with Airbus to purchase 50 shorthaul aircraft (possibly the A320) at a price of $3.8 billion.

Criticism

Wizz Air has taken a fair amount of criticism since its inception over its quality of service and allegedly poor customer support. On August 17, 2009 they filed an official complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization over the domain Wizzairsucks.com which surfaced a few months earlier by a group of disgruntled customers.[19] Despite the efforts of Wizz Air and their legal team citing trademark infringement over the disputed domain, the case was decided in favor of the respondent(s) and the site remains.[20] On December 22, 2009 they were embroiled in a controversy over a story that circulated from Travel.ru [21] claiming they used police dogs and tear gas to forcibly remove several passengers from a canceled flight scheduled from London to Kiev. This was contested by Wizz Air claiming it was a PR attack perpetrated by angry customers of the flight. They released a police report corroborating their version of events which clearly made no mention of either tear gas or dogs being involved in the ordeal.[22] However the story quickly circulated over the internet by disgruntled customers causing a PR problem. According to the website wizzairsucks.com the airline does not respect passengers rights and often ignores European law, in particular Regulation (EC) 261/2004.

References

  1. ^ "Hungarian Wizz Air Opens Fifth Hub in Poland". Business Week. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
  2. ^ "Fliers reap benefits in Eastern Europe". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
  3. ^ "Company information". Retrieved 2009-10-25.
  4. ^ "Ryanair meets Wizz Air: does a merger make sense?". 2009-07-08. Retrieved 2009-07-28.
  5. ^ "Company information (official registration number 13-09-096209)". Retrieved 2009-02-16.
  6. ^ Airliner World, January 2007.
  7. ^ "While SkyEurope is sinking, Wizz Air is stretching wings". 2009-06-29. Retrieved 2009-12-01.
  8. ^ "Wizz Air launches London Gatwick – Katowice flight". 2007-08-09. Retrieved 2008-05-05.
  9. ^ "Wizz Air adds three new A320 aircraft and doubles capacity in Romania - 15 new routes in the next six months".
  10. ^ "Wizz Air to Launch Flights from Bulgaria's Plovdiv". 2010-05-25. Retrieved 2010-09-13.
  11. ^ "Airlinequality.com about Wizz Air". Skytrack Research. Retrieved 2009-04-08. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  12. ^ "Airlinequality.com 2 star list". Skytrack Research. Retrieved 2009-04-08. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  13. ^ a b "Wizz Air". Wizz Air. Retrieved 2009-04-08. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  14. ^ "FlightStats about Wizz Air". FlightStats. Retrieved 2009-04-08. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  15. ^ "Wizz Air fleet list". Retrieved 2010-03-09.
  16. ^ "Airbus orders".
  17. ^ "Wizz Air Sale and Lease Back with GECAS". 2007-12-17.
  18. ^ "Wizz Air orders 50 more Airbus A320s". Flightglobal. 2007-10-10.
  19. ^ "WIZZ Air Hungary Airlines Limited Liability Company v. Holden Thomas". WIPO Case No. D2009-1105. 2009-09-22.
  20. ^ "Wizzair loses! Score one for Wizzairsucks!". 2009-10-01.
  21. ^ "Пассажиров отмененного рейса Wizzair Лондон - Киев выгоняли из самолета собаками и газом". 2009-12-22.
  22. ^ "Gee Wizz: Low-cost airline falls victim to orchestrated PR attack". Kyiv Post. 2010-01-14.
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