Hungary – The Hungarian budget airline WizzAir plans to expand its operation in Italy next year. Bucharest should also become its largest airport base, as demands grows constantly in Romania.

Following a quick post-Covid expansion while other carriers shrunk, WizzAir said six new routes from Italy will be scheduled in 2024, as it will base another three Airbus A321neo aircraft at Rome Fiumicino and one extra aircraft at Milan Malpensa.
The new Italian routes will connect Rome to Berlin, Hamburg, Alicante and Copenhagen, as well as Milan to Paris and Tenerife. It has to be noted that the airline will also level up the frequencies on seventeen already existing routes from Italian airports.

This expansion means an annual 1.5 million more seats to the carrier’s capacity from this market in which it is currently the third bigger.
Meantime, the company will add two A321neo aircraft for summer, based in the Romanian capital city Bucharest. This brings the numer of WizzAir aircrafts based in Bucharest to nineteen. A new route to Leipzig in Germany will be added from the Romanian capital city Bucharest, while frequencies on another 21 routes will be added.

In a recent declaration, the CEO of WizzAir József Váradi said that “This investment in our Romanian operation will turn Bucharest into the single largest operational base of WizzAir, underlining our dedication to the country by creating new jobs with the company and the sector, stimulating the economy and providing affordable travel choices.”

In December this year, two new routes will also be launched from Katowice, in Poland; One to Aqaba in Jordan and another one to Brussels Charleroi. In June, the carrier will also add two more planes to its base of Tirana, in Albania, raising the number of aircrafts to 13. There too, two new routes will be created, one to Leipzig, and one to Valencia, in Spain.

In September, WizzAir was the seventh largest airline group operating in Europe. In the fiercely competitive European low-cost airline market, Ryanair, EasyJet, and WizzAir dominate. Known for budget-friendly fares, Ryanair leads in passenger numbers, while EasyJet focuses on major airports. WizzAir has rapidly expanded, mainly targeting Eastern European routes.