5 days ago
Wizz Air shuts Abu Dhabi operation to focus on Europe
Wizz Air has pulled its services to Abu Dhabi, ending its ambitions to expand east into the Gulf and beyond to service the burgeoning budget aviation market into and out of India.
The London-quoted, Budapest-based budget carrier cited 'supply chain constraints, geopolitical instability and limited market access' for the decision to end its Abu Dhabi services.
Wizz is also in talks with Airbus about scaling back an order for 47 new longer-range A321 XLR aircraft and converting some of these to regular A321 jets.
The airline, which has a fleet of 235 aircraft, has been hobbled for much of the last two years after a key supplier, Pratt & Whitney, announced plans to recall its engines over fears of failure, resulting in Wizz having to ground more than a fifth of its fleet at any one time. That plunged the airline into further seasonal losses after the groundings and dislocation of the pandemic from 2020 and then the loss of lucrative markets in Ukraine following the Russian invasion in 2022.
