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PRIVACY
Economic Development

Wizz Air cuts flights as coronavirus sends demand into a nosedive

Flights will be reduced from later this month amid a range of measures to counter the drop in demand

Wizz Air

Budget European airline Wizz Air has revealed plans to slash routes, cut costs and freeze recruitment as part of measures to offset plunging demand amid the coronavirus outbreak.

The airline - which focuses on the central and eastern European markets - said it will reduce flights from March 11 to countries affected by the virus, mostly to Italy.

It is also looking at cutting capacity by about another 10% between April and June.

Wizz Air said a task force has been set up to "address the financial implications of Covid-19" since the start of the outbreak.

Measures taken include "significant" cutting of cost overheads and discretionary spending, pausing recruitment and non-essential travel, and working with suppliers to make further savings.

The London-listed Hungarian company did not estimate the size of the hit from the outbreak in the year to March 31, adding that it is "difficult to predict the extent and the duration of the outbreak and the impact on the next financial year".

Chief executive Jozsef Varadi said: "Our ever-disciplined attitude to cost enables Wizz Air to partly offset some of the headwinds due to the Covid-19 outbreak, which have driven a temporary decline in demand and an increase in the cost of disruption as we put the well-being of passengers and crew first."

Wizz Air, whose º£½ÇÊÓÆµ head office is in Luton , focuses on Eastern and Central European destinations.