The plan to launch Wizz Air was only conceived in June 2003 when six people with a wide range of airline expertise, as well as successful track records from across different industries, teamed up with József Váradi, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer. In just three months, Wizz Air was a registered company ready to fly.
The first flight took off on 19th May 2004 from Katowice. Today Wizz Air offers over 420 routes from 25 bases in the region: Gdansk,Lublin, Poznan, Katowice, Warsaw and Wroclaw in Poland, Budapest and Debrecen in Hungary, Sofia in Bulgaria, Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Tirgu Mures, Craiova, Sibiu and Timisoara in Romania, Kyiv in Ukraine, Prague in Czech Republic, Belgrade in Serbia, Vilnius in Lithuania, Skopje in Macedonia, Riga in Latvia, Tuzla in Bosnia and Herzegovina,Kosice in Slovakia and Kutaisi in Georgia.
Following a decade of solid growth to become Central and Eastern Europe’s largest low-cost airline, Wizz Air successfully completed an initial public offering on 25 February 2015, and was admitted to the London Stock Exchange. The company is now listed on the LSE under the ticker WIZZ.
On its 11th anniversary in May 2015, WIZZ announced a full brand rejuvenation and new aircraft livery to respond to maturing traveler requirements, taking its place among Europe’s major airlines. WIZZ moved to a fresh, more vibrant, sophisticated look and feel and some of the initiatives introduced in conjunction with the branding initiative were seat allocation, priority boarding, enhanced fare system, and more.
Wizz Air is a value-oriented airline that focuses on innovation all along the way of the customer journey. Our aim is to make flying affordable to the citizens of CEE, as well as to provide a new travel experience to all travellers in the EU. The latest technology is deployed to ensure that the “Wizz Air experience” is outstanding in terms of service and value for money. Wizz Air offers a ‘simple service model’, which means: ticketless travel, use of cost- and time-efficient secondary airports, single class all-leather seat configuration and catering on demand for extra payment.
Wizz Air was named 2016 Value Airline of the Year by Air Transport World, a leading industry magazine.
Wizz Air is committed to operate new, best-in-their-class technology aircraft, maintained by some of the most reputable companies such as Lufthansa Technik. This enables the company to achieve a consistently high standard of service for travellers. Wizz Air flies a young fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft with 180 leather seats on board and A321ceo aircraft with 230 seats.
Wizz Air also has an order for 110 Airbus A321neo, or new engine option aircraft that will, when delivery begins in 2019, further reduce operating costs and carbon footprint.
Wizz Air is continuously looking at opportunities to expand its network of destinations and provide low-cost air transport to and from Central and Eastern Europe. Wizz Air currently offers flights on over 420 routes in Europe and beyond. The network is constantly being expanded and new destinations are being introduced. Wizz Air is committed to achieving the lowest cost base in the region and airport choice has a crucial impact. This is why Wizz Air operates to a mix of primary, secondary and regional airports, that offer low costs that reflect in WIZZ fares, and provide friendly and fast customer service. Wizz Air is in constant negotiations to establish a network of operations at more airports to provide low-cost air transport for Central and Eastern Europe.