Wizz to base fifth Skopje jet in late July
Wizz Air will station its fifth aircraft at its base in Skopje during the second last week of July, some twenty days later than initially planned. The Airbus A320 will enable the airline to introduce flights from the Macedonian capital to Turku in Finland and Larnaca in Cyprus, as well as increase frequencies on several existing routes. Services to Turku and Larnaca will now launch on July 24 instead of July 3 and will run twice per week. Starting July 22, an extra weekly rotation will be added on services to Gothenburg, Hamburg, Cologne and Malta, while flights to Basel will be boosted with an additional three weekly services.
The low cost airline previously noted the new aircraft allocation represents a further 101 million US dollar investment into Macedonian aviation, which will contribute to the creation of over thirty new direct jobs with Wizz Air. These estimates are based on the list price of an A320, as well as an Airports Council International study which suggests the creation of 750 on-site jobs for every one million passengers carried. Wizz started operations from Skopje in 2011, growing its fleet to four aircraft over eight years. Last June, two of the airline’s A320s were upgraded to two A321s. The no frills carrier launched new state-sponsored flights from Ohrid to Malmo and Milan, as well as from Skopje to Baden Baden and Bremen in March. This will be followed up with new services from Ohrid to Dortmund in early July, as well as Ohrid - Memmingen and the above-mentioned Turku and Larnaca later that same month.
Meanwhile, this week Wizz Air celebrated the fifteenth anniversary of its first flight, as well as a milestone of 200 million passengers carried. The first Wizz flight took off on May 19, 2004 from Katowice to London Luton. Since then the airline has grown its fleet to 112 Airbus aircraft. "We operated our first flight in 2004 between Poland and the UK, and today, fifteen years later, we celebrate a total of 200 million passengers carried from 112 airports across 44 countries. While it is undeniable that our people are the biggest driver of this achievement, there are also four key elements that have set WIizz apart from our competitors and helped establish our unrivalled strategic position in Europe", CEO Jozsef Varadi said. He added, "Thanks to our exceptional ULCC [ultra low cost carrier] business model, we are cost leaders in a commodity industry and one of the most valued airlines in Europe. Our market leadership and increased focus on the Central East Europe region gives us a unique advantage by allowing us to enter an underpenetrated market, in which we strive to get people into the franchise of flying, rather than compete for the passengers of existing airlines. We have an order of over 250 A321neo aircraft, an extremely valuable asset and a true game-changer for Wizz, offering the lowest unit cost and environmental footprint per passenger, as well as reduced noise and NOX footprint. Finally, our culturally diverse organisation and leadership team, represented by over fifty nationalities, ensure that we have a truly global vision, take balanced decisions and swiftly adapt to changes in our environment".
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