Wizz Air

Wizz Air calls itself an ultra-low-cost airline, and its stated ambition for 2026 is to be Europe's most loved one. The model is a familiar one for the segment: a single family of Airbus narrowbodies and a base fare that includes only a small under-seat bag, with larger bags, seats and other services sold on top. The group's parent, Wizz Air Holdings plc, is registered in Jersey and listed on the London Stock Exchange, while the main operating company is based in Budapest.

Three airlines fly under the brand. Wizz Air Hungary, the original company, holds the W6 code; Wizz Air UK was set up in October 2017 and began flying in March 2018 from Luton, partly to protect access to the British market after Brexit; Wizz Air Malta made its first flight, Rome Fiumicino to Malta, on 27 September 2022. Earlier offshoots in Bulgaria and Ukraine were folded back into the Hungarian company, and a joint venture in Abu Dhabi, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, was closed on 1 September 2025. Flights between Europe and the United Arab Emirates continue.

Beginnings

The company was established in September 2003 by József Váradi, who had previously run the Hungarian state airline Malév and remains chief executive. The US private equity firm Indigo Partners was the lead investor. The first flight left Katowice in Poland on 19 May 2004,. The shares were listed in London on 25 February 2015.

Where it flies

The largest bases are Budapest, Bucharest Henri Coandă and London Luton, and the network reaches airports in 45 countries across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, according to the airline's investor site. Base decisions move quickly: Wikipedia records the Vienna base as closing in March 2026, while additional Luton slots bought from TUI in December 2025 allowed Wizz Air to base a 15th aircraft there and add six routes for summer 2026, including a London–Yerevan service. In early 2026 Wizz Air UK also applied to the US Department of Transportation for authority to fly between the UK and the United States; no routes had been announced at the time of the application.

Traffic is published monthly. In September 2026 the group carried 7.78 million passengers at a load factor of 92.0%, and 79.3 million in the twelve months to the end of that month.

Fleet and the engine problem

In its September 2026 traffic release, dated 2 October 2026, Wizz Air said it operates 276 Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft; the investor site gives an average age of 4.6 years. The fleet has been increasingly built around the A321neo, and a November 2021 order covered 75 more A321neos and 27 long-range A321XLRs.

The neo aircraft use Pratt & Whitney's PW1100G geared turbofan, and the inspection programme for that engine has kept part of the fleet on the ground since 2024. Wikipedia reports the chief executive as expecting the affected aircraft back in service by late 2027 or early 2028. The headline fleet count includes grounded aircraft.

Plans

At a capital markets day on 17 September 2026, Wizz Air set targets for its 2030 financial year that include an all-neo fleet of 335 aircraft carrying 127 million passengers. In the same update it said it had trimmed planned capacity for the second half of the current financial year by 5%, citing geopolitical and fuel-price volatility.