On the occasion of the Aviation Event aviation congress in Moldova at the end of May, I had the opportunity to interview Wizz Air President Robert Carey about possible destinations for the Airbus A321 XLR, lack of growth and the airline’s aircraft in Ukraine for an interview in aeroTELEGRAPH.
Wizz Air recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, how satisfied are you with the airline’s development?
Robert Carey, Wizz Air:
We are super satisfied; we have now carried more than 400 million passengers and we have over 8000 WIZZ employees. We connect the north with the south and the west with the east, our economic importance and our route network are truly unique. We have a super exciting 20 years behind us and we are looking forward to the next 20 years to come.
For the first time in three years, your airline has made a profit again (EUR 365.9m), will this trend continue?
‘Back in black’ as I like to say! We had our growth, then came Covid and many other things. Now we have come back strongly and are well positioned to remain profitable in the future.
What is your master plan for this year?
This year may be very different to previous years, as we are not planning any further growth due to the well-known Pratt & Whitney engine problems. Around 50 aircraft are currently parked due to the checks, which is why we have to be super-efficient once again this year in order to maintain our flight programme. Nevertheless, we are very happy that we do not have to close any of our bases due to the engine problems, that no employees are losing their jobs and that we can offer our customers our popular Wizz Air product as usual.
What are the biggest challenges now?
It’s probably the supply chains; Airbus had its problems there, as did Pratt & Whitney. The procurement of spare parts at the same time as logistical management and the fact that we have to get the 50 parked aircraft ready to fly again as quickly as possible are probably our biggest challenges at the moment. Our task is still to be able to maintain our offer and at the same time be ready for future growth.
What measures are you taking to mitigate the problems, have you used external aircraft (ACMI)?
We had a few of them in use! We have learnt a lot recently and it took almost six months for the actual problems with the Pratt & Whitney engines to be identified. We have been working on solving the problems since March and have now learnt to maintain our flight operations with the non-available aircraft and to keep the impact on passengers to a minimum. I think we have been quite successful so far!
You still have around 330 aircraft orders with Airbus, are deliveries going according to plan?
Like the others, we have had slightly delayed deliveries in the past, but these delays are somewhat understandable given the developments in recent years. However, Airbus is working on the problems and in general it has to be said that everything is going according to plan with the deliveries of our aircraft.
Will Wizz Air never have long-haul flights or larger aircraft like Discover, Norse or Level?
No, definitely not! The A321 NEO is a great aircraft and we will continue to offer flights in our existing segments as an ultra low-cost airline.
What about the A321XLR, when will it arrive and where do you think it would make the most sense to use the long-haul Airbus in your network?
The first A321XLR should fly with us in March 2025 but we have not yet announced where the aircraft will be deployed.
But on which routes would the A321XLR make sense?
Look, we have large bases in the West, such as London, Rome, Milan or Vienna, with a lot of business, but on the other hand our markets are also in the East. We could open up many new markets, such as in North Africa, which we could reach more easily with the A321XLR or, of course, the aircraft would also be ideal for flights from our base in Abu Dhabi, from where we could fly to Singapore. So there are a large number of destinations that we can reach better, but destinations to the west, i.e. across the pond, are not on the agenda!
Twenty of total of 30 Wizz Air bases are located in Eastern/Southeastern Europe. Are you continuing to focus on building up your Eastern European business or do you also see potential in Western Europe?
In our opinion, the way we are set up now is the right way! We have around 100 aircraft stationed at our bases in Central and Eastern Europe and around 50 aircraft in Western Europe. We are very satisfied with our bases in England, Italy and Austria and are planning further growth here. We will grow twice as much in Italy in particular, Vienna will continue on its path and there are capacity restrictions in London. But in Central-Eastern Europe there is still a much greater, huge untapped potential, because so far around 50 per cent fewer people in Eastern Europe use the aeroplane for travel than in Western Europe.
Would you sign to the sentence: The future lies in Eastern Europe?
I would sign the future lies with Wizz Air! The east simply has the potential, the further east you go, the fewer passengers fly by plane. We at Wizz Air want to give these people affordable access to flying.
What happened to the idea of entering Saudi Arabia and how satisfied are you with your Wizz Air business in Abu Dhabi?
We are satisfied with the development in Abu Dhabi, we have 12 aircraft stationed there. We have been there for four years and have created new markets with our products. In the meantime, we have replaced the Neo Airbuses with Ceo’s in order to eliminate the engine problems.
At this point, we are therefore focussing on growth where possible. We are now the second largest airline between Saudi Arabia and Europe and we have a 60 per cent market share of all flights between Italy and Saudi Arabia. The market is responding to our offer and we are ready to fly more passengers to the region.
With 54 destinations, Tirana Airport is now one of the largest in south-east Europe. Will you now reconsider your commitment in Albania following the entry of competitor Ryanair?
Look, we are pleased that we can compete with Ryanair in Albania. We are extremely satisfied with the development in Albania, we fly to 54 destinations and have 13 aircraft based in the Albanian capital, we are by far the leading airline in Tirana. We have more than 50 per cent market share and the market loves the Wizz Air product. We plan to continue growing in Albania because no one can beat our price offer, which is why we are happy to compete with Ryanair.
What impact did the war in Ukraine have on your airline?
Of course, it hit us hard when the war in Ukraine started, we had 7 per cent of our business in Ukraine and around 2 per cent in Russia. As soon as we have the opportunity, we would therefore like to return to these markets. We were the leading airline in Ukraine before the war and we would like to be the leading airline again after the war!
Wizz Air had several aircraft stationed in Ukraine. Have all the stranded aircraft been flown out in the meantime?
No, there are still Wizz Air aircraft in Ukraine! Originally there were four of them in Ukraine at the beginning of the war, three in Kiev and one in Lviv. We were able to fly out the aircraft from Lviv, but all the other aircraft are still in Kiev. We have now removed the engines from these aircraft to use them for other aircraft, but as soon as the situation allows, we would like to get the aircraft back in the air.
We are currently in Chisinau, how is business in Moldova picking up again after you suspended your connections for a few months following the start of the war in Ukraine?
We never intended to stop flying to Moldova, but the security situation forced us to temporarily suspend flights. We returned in December and the government is very supportive of our efforts to re-establish many connections. We would like to grow here again, offer more destinations and hope for good co-operation with the Moldovan government in our plans.
Since the start of your flights in Austria, there has been an ebb and flow in the stationing of aircraft. How satisfied are you with the Austrian market in general?
We already had eight aircraft stationed in Vienna before Covid, then we reduced this to four aircraft and there are currently six units stationed there. We are currently very happy with the situation in Vienna as it is, there were difficulties with profitability in the past, because there were very strict guidelines in Austria during the Covid pandemic, while Ryanair entered the market very strongly, which is why we first had to slowly build up our markets again. But we are currently very satisfied!
Salzburg was a project that started shortly before Covid and therefore never really took off successfully. A year ago, we started talks with Salzburg Airport again and today we are happy that we are flying from Salzburg again. We want to build up our connections from Salzburg in the long term and have found a very good contact person for our plans in Bettina Ganghofer (Managing Director of Salzburg Airport).
But the Salzburg market is probably too small to ever base an aircraft there?
You never know, because the region has a large and interesting catchment area and therefore offers great potential, which is why I would not commit myself to this question.
How difficult is it to find qualified personnel in general and what is the situation like for pilots in particular?
Our situation with employees is really good, because after we actually had problems getting crews a few years ago, the situation has improved significantly with our cadet programmes. Through our ongoing pilot training programme, we now have a constant influx of young motivated pilots that will allow us to grow steadily in the future.
You are building a new Wizz Air training centre in Rome, how did it come about to build this in the Roman capital?
With 14 stationed aircraft, Rome is one of our largest bases where we want to continue to grow. All our bases in Europe are well connected to Rome, which alone makes it logistically easy to choose Rome as the location for our training centre. And finally, there was also good cooperation with Rome Airport and a suitable location that will enable us to open the new training centre in just a few weeks.
Martin Dichler
https://www.aerotelegraph.com/koennten-mit-dem-airbus-a321-xlr-von-abu-dhabi-nach-singapur