Wizz Air, a budget airline in Central and Eastern Europe, has opened its first UK base at London Luton Airport and announced three new services to Tel Aviv, Prishtina and Kutaisi.
Wizz Air will now base one of its new Airbus A320 aircraft at the airport, increasing operations to 42 routes from Luton. The aircraft will support the start of operations of three new routes from London Luton, which includes the only direct connection between Kutaisi and the UK.
Starting June 18, the new Wizz Air route from London Luton to Kutaisi, Georgia will operate on Thursdays and Sundays with fares starting from £23.99; to Tel Aviv, Israel on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, Sundays starting June 24, 2017, with fares starting from £97.99; and to Prishtina, Kosovo on Tuesday, Saturday, also starting June 24, 2017, with fares starting from £30.49. Fares are all one way including all taxes and non-optional charges. Seats on the new routes are on sale and can be booked at wizzair.com.
Besides the new routes, with the arrival of the new aircraft, the airline will also increase its frequencies on some of its most popular routes to Romania. Suceava will now operate five times per week, Constanta four times per week and Iasi flights will operate daily.
Owain Jones, Chief Corporate Officer at Wizz Air, said: ‘We are proud to celebrate the opening of the first WIZZ base in the United Kingdom at London Luton Airport. Wizz Air’s very first flight in 2004 was to London Luton and, since then, we have carried 30 million passengers on our low fare routes from the airport, stimulating the local tourism and aviation industries while strengthening business partnerships between the UK and CEE.
‘Our new base operations at London Luton Airport will create a number of local jobs with WIZZ and the new destinations added to the network mean even greater choice for WIZZ’s UK passengers with 42 popular routes to 18 countries operating from London Luton and ever more opportunities to discover Europe on WIZZ’s low fare routes. Our fantastic crew will ensure an excellent travel experience for each passenger traveling with WIZZ on board one of Europe’s youngest fleets.’
In 2016 Wizz Air carried more than five million passengers on its London Luton routes, making it the second largest operator at the airport. In 2017 Wizz Air will have almost 6.3 million seats on sale on its London Luton routes, representing 13 percent growth year on year, the airline said.