Wizz Air, the Hungarian low-fare airline won rights to operate flights between Budapest and Kiev and Tel Aviv, said József Váradi, Chief Executive Officer at a press conference on Monday.

Wizz Air expects to carry an annual 2 million passengers on the routes, Váradi said. The flights will launch in December and operate three times a week, he added.

Wizz Air recently signed a 2 billion Fats contract with Male Ground Handling, he said. The three-year contract starts on November 1.

He added that the decision about flights to Moscow and Istanbul is to be made in two months. The company does not follow the strategy of MALÉV, which considered Budapest as a transfer point, but operates directly between target destinations. Each of the 180 seats of these flights are supposed to full, said the CEO. There are 8 thousand passengers for 1 Wizz Air employee annually, while this number in the case of traditional airlines is only 1-2 thousand. The machines’ time spent in air is 13 hours a day, compared to an average of 8-9 hours. The cost per seat is only a third of that of the traditional companies. However, this year 9 flights have been cancelled- explained the CEO.

Last year Wizz Air transported 11 million passengers, and 12 million this year. Currently there are 252 air routes to 80 destinations of 29 countries operating from 16 bases. There are 39 planes, but by next summer it will be extended with 6 more A 320 machines. During the fiscal year there was 250 billion turnovers and it was ended in March with a 16.7 billion profit.

 source: MTI