Budget airline Wizz Air plans to reduce the number of flights from Gatwick Airport, instead shifting its fleet to Luton, due to operating costs and ‘inferior slots’
Budget airline Wizz Air is set to cut the number of flights it operates from Gatwick Airport.
JĂ³zsef VĂ¡radi, chief executive of Hungarian firm Wizz Air, said his airline is losing money in its operations at the UK’s second busiest airport. The carrier is instead set to shift towards operating more flights out of Luton due to lower costs.
This process will start with Wizz Air moving a single plane from Gatwick to Luton, Mr VĂ¡radi said. This will kickstart an “ongoing process” to slowly shift the fleet.
This follows the closure of an Abu Dhabi-based offshoot of Wizz Air, announced in July, as well as the scrapping of its base in Vienna due to “airport costs and taxes”.
Mr VĂ¡radi told The Telegraph: “Gatwick is expensive and we have been operating an inferior set of slots there. We think that we can enhance financial performance by operating that capacity from Luton.”
“Circumstances change and you have to take action. Whichever bases give you the most profitability, you should be biased toward them. That includes moving aircraft over from Gatwick to Luton.”
Mr VĂ¡radi added that the airline doesn’t plan on leaving Gatwick entirely, but instead aims to “optimise” its base there. He added: “You have to churn your network for profit. We are simply more efficient financially in Luton.”
This comes after Wizz Air revealed ‘Wizz Class’, which will allow passengers to pay extra to sit on a row with an unoccupied middle seat – giving them a little extra room in the process.
Other perks include priority boarding, a carry-on bag allowance and guaranteed space in overhead bins. The airline said Wizz Class is “designed to meet the demand of travellers seeking more space, comfort and a quicker exit from the aircraft”.
Commercial officer Silvia Mosquera said: “The roll-out of Wizz Class follows feedback from our growing number of business travellers who value low-cost travel options and prefer additional space during the flight.”
The new seating option will appear on selected flights departing from London, Rome, Warsaw, Bucharest and Budapest in December.
