Wizz Air has revealed today that it will be forced to cut its capacity to just 50% of 2019 levels in October as fluctuating border restrictions and quarantine rules take their toll on demand. At today’s World Aviation Festival, Wizz CEO Joszef Varadi spoke candidly about the situation facing airlines right now. Here’s what he said.
Further capacity cuts amid uncertain restrictions
Wizz Air was a standout recovery airline throughout the summer months. From June onwards, it began building back capacity in spades, launching 200 routes and a swathe of new bases. By August, it had upped its capacity to 80% of 2019’s levels.
However, uncertainty over border restrictions have stunted travel demand, and in an operational update at the start of September, it revealed capacity would be down to just 60% of 2019 levels over the quarter. Now, it seems further capacity will be pulled. At today’s World Aviation Festival, CEO Joszef Varadi explained why, saying,
“Throughout the summer period, we have managed to recover 80% of our 2019 capacity. In August, we operated 80% of August 2019 capacity versus the industry’s 50%, so we did much better than the industry.
“But now, we’re facing another wave of government restrictions. Again, it is uncoordinated. If you would have hoped to learn something from day one of managing the situation, it was that we needed more coordination, a more centralized approach, more unification. But that’s not happening. “
Varadi went on to highlight that it was not simply the restrictions that are causing the problem, but the inconsistency with which they are applied in various countries. With a huge network, Wizz Air is one of the most exposed.
“We are operating to 46 countries and there are no two countries that are applying the same sets of measures. So it’s pretty horrific, it has become a zoo. It has simply made travel totally unpredictable for people.”
Varadi had previously said he expected a full recovery of network and capacity within 12 months. Now, he admits this will be hard to achieve without a coordinated approach to border rules across the continent.
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Pent up demand
Despite the bleak outlook, Varadi remains positive that demand will come back as soon as these barriers to travel are lifted. He said that, when there is free travel between markets with no limitations in place, the airline had rapidly seen demand bounce back. Varadi commented,
“Immediately, once these restrictions are removed, be it a quarantine or a border closure, we are seeing underlying demand resurging, pretty much immediately, overnight. So the issue is not people’s intention to travel, the issue is the unpredictability of travel imposed by government restrictions.”
The Wizz Air CEO was not the only airline executive calling for more cohesion on border restrictions at this week’s World Aviation Festival. Indeed, all operators either based in or flying to Europe gave the same signal, that this inconsistency and the ever-changing rules were damaging the industry.
Most see widespread testing as the potential solution to unblock travel. But with COVID cases rising and no coherent strategy in place, it seems the winter season will be incredibly tough on Europe’s airlines.