Wizz Air, the largest low-cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe, celebrates its biggest ever milestone with 100 million passengers carried on its low-fare services over the past 11 years. The first flight of the carrier was operated in 2004 between Katowice and London-Luton. The airline commemorated the fact and organized a press conference in the city with József Váradi, CEO of Wizz Air.
The 100 millionth passenger traveled on Wizz’s route was celebrated on Tuesday. Over 40 million of all passengers who flew Wizz Air in the past 11 years traveled on one of the airline’s Polish routes. 13,3 million of them have been carried from and to the Katowice International Airport (KTW).
József Váradi, CEO of Wizz Air, said in Katowice: „We operated our first flight in 2004 between Katowice and London-Luton, and today, 11 years later, we celebrate a total of 100 million passengers carried from over 110 airports across 38 countries. During that time, Katowice made a huge progress from a small airport to an important, international airport which now handles 3 million passengers per year and where we carry 1,5 million passengers per year. Now we have 5 aircraft based at KTW and we created several number of jobs here. The airport is one of our three main bases in Poland but Katowice has become one of the most important places for us not only in the country but to the company’s bases network as well. We plan to bring new destinations, aircrafts and frequency of flights to the airport as it is very important destination for Wizz Air, so you can expect more growth in the coming years”.
The Katowice – London-Luton route was not only the Wizz Air’s first flight but also the airport was the first base of the carrier. Now, the 5 based Airbus A320 aircrafts service 26 routes from KTW. 180 is the number of local staff of Wizz Air in Katowice. Another 1 300 aviation and tourism jobs are supported. Wizz Air already carried 1,2 million people from KTW this year. „There will be no such expansion of our airport without Wizz Air” – commented Artur Tomasik, chairman of the board of the Upper Silesian Aviation Group, which is responsible for the airport management.
Poland is the largest market for Wizz Air and according to József Váradi, it will remain the largest market for the carrier. The airline needed eleven years to carry 100 million passengers and will need next five years to carry another 100 million. 650 people of Wizz Air’s 2 400 staff are Polish. The carrier based 20 aircrafts in six bases in Poland and offers 121 routes.