LONDON – With Wizz Air’s Abu Dhabi subsidiary continuing to expand, we must pose the question. Will the carrier become a global low-cost superpower?
Over the weekend, the airline announced an expansion to Male, the Maldives as well as Kuwait City, which are both due to commence in October.
Development Officer at Wizz Air Owain Jones stated the following on the newly launched routes and the new expected aircraft, of which the airline received its 160th last week:
“We are excited to announce two new Wizz Air Abu Dhabi routes, which reaffirm our commitment to supporting the UAE’s travel and tourism industry by connecting its capital with many popular holiday destinations regionally and globally.”
“With the arrival of our fifth Airbus aircraft in October, we are delighted to enhance connectivity with our neighbor countries across the GCC with flights to Kuwait, as well as provide our customers with affordable flights to the Maldives.”
“We are particularly excited about the launch of flights to the Maldives, a tropical paradise destination high up on travelers’ bucket lists. The Wizz team looks forward to welcoming customers on board our young and green aircraft very soon.”
“Wizz Air has been making impressive moves over the last few years, even with COVID-19 plaguing the industry for 2 years and ongoing, the airline is making impressive moves to expand.”
Already Extensive Route Network…
As you can see from the image above, these are the destinations that Wizz Air Abu Dhabi services as of July 2022. Male and Kuwait City are yet to be added to this diagram, but you can see how extensive the networks are so far.
The carrier has expanded around itself, into other parts of the Middle East, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and into Europe as well.
The Male flights, in particular, will take the airline further afield into the Asian continent, and with more A321neoLRs on the way, the carrier will be able to go further.
As the flight durations become longer, it is definitely bolstering the point that they are going to have more of a global spread going into the future.
A321neoLR & XLR Part of the Strategy…
With the Airbus A321neoLR and standard A321neos part of the overall strategy for the carrier, the next question would be whether they would go as far as the XLR.
And they will be. As part of a major order by Wizz’s owners, Indigo Partners, the airline will receive 20 A321XLRs in the future, which is going to expand the airline’s scope further.
With the XLR offering a range of 4,700 nautical miles, Wizz Air could potentially expand into the Australian market, with flights from Abu Dhabi to Sydney easily doable with this aircraft.
South Africa would be another option, with flights from Abu Dhabi to Cape Town as well. So with this in mind, it comes as no surprise that the Hungarian carrier has a subsidiary in the United Arab Emirates.
So Will They Become A Low-Cost Global Superpower?
At this stage, and as we proceed through this decade, there is a lot of open potentials for Wizz Air Abu Dhabi to brand the Wizz Air group as a global low-cost superpower.
When they begin to receive A321XLRs, it will be interesting to see what routes they choose to deploy the aircraft on. From there, it will give an indication of how far they want to push the global strategy.
This is why Wizz Air is going to be a carrier that needs a close look as we progress through the years ahead, as they may end up proving successfully for the first time that global low-cost travel could work.
And if they do succeed in this, then it is going to provide a handy case study for other carriers who may want to do the same thing in the future.
