Wizz Air announces new base in Vienna

Low-cost Central and Eastern Europe-focused airline Wizz Air has announced plans to make Austria the 44th country in its network by establishing base operations at Vienna Airport.

Wizz said on Tuesday that it will open its Austrian base with one Airbus A320 aircraft in June, which will be followed by the deployment of two additional Airbus A321 aircraft in November. Wizz will operate a total of 17 new routes from the Austrian capital in 2018.

The establishment of the new base represents an investment of $331m and 120 new direct jobs with the airline will be created.

The newest Wizz services will connect Vienna with Gdansk, Tuzla and Varna from April, with Bari, Malta, Rome, Valencia and Tel Aviv from June and with Billund, Bergen, Dortmund, Kutaisi, Larnaca, Nis, Ohrid, Tenerife and Thessaloniki from November. Seats on the routes are already on sale starting from €19.99.

This year, will offer 450,000 seats on sale on its Austrian routes, operating 69 weekly flights by the end of 2018 from Vienna Airport.

The recruitment of local crew for the Austria base has already begun, with open day for all those interested in a career at Wizz.

Chief executive József Váradi said: "Today, everything changes for Austrian travellers. For the first time, truly low fares arrive in Vienna. Wizz Air's Austrian customers now have the opportunity to travel from Vienna on an extensive network of routes to Europe and beyond at the lowest prices and experience Wizz Air's great service onboard one of Europe's youngest fleets. The new routes will also allow Wizz Air's customers from other countries to experience for themselves the beauty of Austria's cities and mountains.

Our new colleagues in Vienna will have the opportunity to develop their careers with one of the fastest-growing airlines in Europe and our Vienna operation will also create and support additional jobs in the local aviation, transportation and hospitality industries. We are confident that our excellent value service and extensive route network will make Wizz Air the airline of choice for travellers to and from Austria."

At 1030 GMT, the shares were up 0.5% to 3,686p.