{"id":22156,"date":"2020-06-04T12:55:21","date_gmt":"2020-06-04T08:55:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/?p=22156"},"modified":"2020-06-04T12:55:21","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T08:55:21","slug":"wizz-air-aims-to-have-100-aircraft-serving-gcc-markets-by-2035","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wizz-air-aims-to-have-100-aircraft-serving-gcc-markets-by-2035\/","title":{"rendered":"Wizz Air Aims To Have 100 Aircraft Serving GCC Markets By 2035"},"content":{"rendered":"

During an interview<\/a> with aviation industry consultant John Strickland<\/a>, during ATM Virtual, Wizz Air CEO, Joszef Varadi<\/a>, confirmed his ambitions for the low-cost carrier\u2019s impending move to operate out of Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at what we\u2019ve been able to achieve in the EU, we managed to grow our fleet to 100 aircraft over the last 15 years and we should be able to do the same thing in Abu Dhabi.\u201d<\/p>\n

Expanding on his forecast, he added, \u201cYou should be looking at our platform, not necessarily just Abu Dhabi, we want to serve the UAE and possibly the broader GCC markets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Celebrating its 16th<\/sup> anniversary, Wizz Air employs more than 4,500 people and flew 40 million passengers, to 151 airports in 44 countries, on 710 routes last year. It has a young fleet of 120 Airbus aircraft with an option to buy a further 20 Airbus A321XLR\u00a0aircraft, the most cost-efficient aircraft of its type.<\/p>\n

Varadi went to talk about the current situation and the desire to travel, versus the ability to travel. He claimed that his customers were motivated to travel especially younger customers, who generally are more adventurous and less affected by the pandemic.<\/p>\n

However, the inconsistent response from different governments to the COVID-19 situation was not supporting the industry and that a framework of regulations was needed, to enable aviation to recover.<\/p>\n

\u201cAirports did well after 9\/11 introducing heightened security measures and we need similar measures regarding health and safety. While airports and airlines are quiet it is easier to practice social distancing, but not when we start to become busier,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Regarding onboard health and safety, Varadi believes the industry is stepping up. But measures such as simply blocking the middle seat, or implementing onboard distancing, is impractical and will not work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no scientific evidence to suggest any passengers have contracted the virus while flying. In fact, the air filtration onboard aircraft is comparable with an intensive care unit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also made an interesting comparison.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy is going to the restaurant, or the supermarket, safer than boarding an aircraft, when we can manage and trace our passengers more easily?<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, I do support wearing masks, hand sanitising, disinfecting and reducing the amount of high touch points such as cash payments for onboard catering and inflight magazines,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

According to Strickland, Wizz Air has funding totalling 1.5 billion euros and current \u2018operating\u2019 expenses of 90 million euros per month during the summer and 70 million euros per month during the winter, which compares favourably with Lufthansa which is burning through one million euros per hour!<\/p>\n

When asked about surviving the current coronavirus crisis, Varadi had a typically upbeat message. \u201cIt\u2019s all about liquidity and what that provides to your business. If we do not fly a single passenger for the next 24 months we will still be in business, so we are well positioned to take advantage of the situation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Coming out of the crisis, Varadi believes that the ensuing recession will also create greater challenges for the industry than the outbreak itself. Short-haul, low-cost carriers such as Wizz Air will be better placed to recover initially, because the lowest costs prevail. Some passengers will also look to downgrade from legacy carriers to save money.<\/p>\n

In terms of corporate travel, companies will look to reduce their expenses post COVID-19, so corporate travel will take longer to recover. But he believes that would also be of benefit to Wizz Air, as businesses look for more cost-effective flights.<\/p>\n

The aviation industry has been a recurring theme throughout the three-day virtual event and included an interview<\/a> with aviation industry veteran Sir Tim Clark<\/a>, President of Emirates Airline with respected aviation expert John Strickland<\/a>, Director of JLS Consulting during the opening session, where he outlined the company\u2019s response to COVID-19 and its impact on their future strategy.<\/p>\n

Also on day one, was the \u2018Communicating and Building Confidence Now<\/a>\u2019 session led by Travel Weekly Executive Editor, Ian Taylor<\/a>. The panel of global travel leaders provided thought leadership on empathetic communication during a crisis and included Dr. Taleb Rifai<\/a>, Chairman, International Institute of Peace for Tourism (IIPT) and former Secretary General of the UNWTO; Bernard Dunn<\/a>, President, Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, Boeing; Gerald Lawless<\/a>, World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) ambassador and Director of ITIC; and Haitham Mattar<\/a>, CEO, Beyond Tourism.<\/p>\n

In addition, a webinar by Cirium<\/a>, the data intelligence experts, which took place on the final day of the virtual event, showcased the power of analytics in supporting business performance.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Tourism Saudi Arabia and the Italian Tourist Board are both Gold sponsors of ATM Virtual.<\/p>\n

ATM Virtual concluded on Wednesday 3rd June 2020. This session is available on demand until tomorrow (Friday 5th June) for those who are already registered. For access, please go to: atmvirtual.eventnetworking.com\/online-conference\/1579<\/a><\/p>\n

Those who did not register for ATM Virtual will be able to access the session from next week on the WTM Global Hub:hub.wtm.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

During an interview with aviation industry consultant John Strickland, during ATM Virtual, Wizz Air CEO, Joszef Varadi, confirmed his ambitions for the low-cost carrier\u2019s impending move to operate out of Abu Dhabi. \u201cIf you look at what we\u2019ve been able to achieve in the EU, we managed to grow our fleet to 100 aircraft over […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22157,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22158,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22156\/revisions\/22158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.middleeastevents.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}