The boss of low-cost carrier Wizz Air UK says there is potential to bring more routes to Cardiff Airport as it launches a new base with nine destinations.
Managing director of the fast-expanding airline, Marion Geoffroy, said bookings for its inaugural summer season, which commences tomorrow from the Rhoose-based airport with flights to Spain, Portugal, Cyprus and Egypt, were encouraging.
The investment from Wizz Air UK, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is part of a wider Hungarian-based group, will create 40 pilot and cabin crew roles at Cardiff, with a further 250-plus jobs generated through the supply chain. The routes will be serviced by one of Wizz Air’s new fleet of more fuel efficient A321 aircraft with capacity for 239 passengers.
In a boost to the Welsh Government-owned airport, which is aiming to recover by the end of this year to half of its pre-Covid annual passenger level of 1.65 million, the investment from Wizz Air sees its first low-cost carrier base since the launch of Bmibaby in 2002, before its collapse nine years later.
For the summer season Wizz Air has put into the market 203,000 seats on its new Cardiff routes.
Asked if there was potential for Wizz Air to expand in the future, Ms Geoffroy said: “When we open a base we believe it is a permanent one which is going to grow as well. From Cardiff it is a full leisure type of traffic today serving places such as Greece, Egypt, Spain and the Canary Islands.
"We have also designed a winter network and a commercial plan to some winter sun destinations. As there is more maturity in this market, we don’t exclude starting at some point some central and eastern European routes as we believe demand is there and awareness too.
“So, we have started with what we believe is the right product for the right season and we will of course keep improving the product and diversifying as we believe there is the right level of demand within the Cardiff catchment area.”
On additional aircraft based at the airport, she said: “Firstly you want to be successful with your first aircraft and the first year of operation you want to see your investment delivering on expectations. However, based on the network we do believe there will be success.
"Adding one more aircraft would be a decision based on having sufficient understanding of how we perform throughout the summer, but very importantly the winter as well. We don’t really see that yet as winter is still far away, but we can see that summer is booking very well... but we don’t yet have a full cycle.”
On a decision making time frame she added: “I would say two to three years of starting the investment.”
She said the airline, due to its low prices, could attract significant passengers from outside of Wales. She added: “The brand is quite new, but as it is more understood by the travellers they will take advantage of our destinations from Cardiff and might relocate from Bristol Airport. Our fares are already cheap, but can become cheaper. So, it really makes sense to travel for an hour to the airport (Cardiff), which is served by good infrastructure, if you come from a more eastern catchment.”
She confirmed that the new base in Cardiff has not received any Welsh Government financial support. “This is a pure commercial decision by the airline,” said the managing director who took up the role last August having been previously chief corporate officer. The French woman replaced Welshman Owain Jones after he took up a new group role in Hungary.
On investment to establish new bases in the UK , she said: “At the moment we don’t want to over diversify and start new bases at the same time (Cardiff). However, we are looking at other options for when the time is right and we have the aircraft assets for that. So, is it is all decided for this year (base investment), but will probably be looking at new opportunities from next year onwards.”
Its other current UK bases, besides Cardiff, are at Doncaster Sheffield, London Luton and Gatwick airports.
Could Bristol, where it currently operates a route to Katowice, be a future potential rival base to Cardiff? Ms Geoffroy said: “This is probably not on the map. These are also partnerships that you establish with airports and it is a mutual investment."
Fuel costs
On rising fuel costs she said the airline is monitoring the situation daily, but there weren’t currently plans to pass through the cost to passengers with increased ticket prices.
Having ceased hedging on fuel costs when the pandemic hit in spring 2020, Wizz reintroduced the cost protective financial instrument a few months ago. Its board is now considering whether to approve a further increase in its hedge position due to the impact of rising fuel costs impacted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ms Geoffroy said: “It is very volatile and we have no idea how long it will take to level up so hedging was the right thing to do. We have not increased the tickets (prices) so passengers today are not charged for the fuel cost increase, but we are monitoring the situation on a daily basis.”
In March, group-wide Wizz carried 2.4 million passengers at a capacity rate of 85%.
