Wizz Air, the largest low-cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe, today announced that it was adjusting its network and capacity plan to reflect changing customer demand. In June 2018, the airline will close its base at Lublin Airport and redeploy its Lublin-based Airbus A320 aircraft to consolidate operations at Katowice Airport. However, Wizz Air will continue to operate a number of its routes from Lublin, including the Eindhoven, London Luton, Kiev, Oslo Torp and Stockholm Skavsta services.

The capacity adjustment allows Wizz Air to launch 10 new, long-awaited Polish routes, which will connect Katowice with Porto, Munich, Lviv, Kharkiv, Malaga, Faro, Podgorica; Gdansk with Lviv; Warsaw with Podgorica and Poznan with Dortmund from March 2018. Seats on the new routes are already on sale and can be booked on wizzair.com from PLN 39*.

Wizz Air’s first flight took off from Poland in May 2004 and since then, the airline has constantly expanded its operations carrying over 55 million passengers on its low-fare Polish routes. In the first ten months of 2017 over 6.84 million passengers flew with WIZZ to and from Poland, 16% more than in the same period of the previous year. Underlining its commitment to the country, Wizz Air has recently announced that it will deploy a total of three additional aircraft at its Gdansk, Wroclaw and Warsaw bases by March 2018 expanding its Polish fleet to 25 aircraft and growing its team to over 900 dedicated local employees. All affected employees at the Lublin base will be offered opportunities elsewhere in Wizz Air’s network, including relocation support.

Next year Wizz Air will have over 11.34 million seats on sale on its Polish routes, which represents a 27% growth year over year.

Wizz Air’s Polish operations do not only provide affordable access on WIZZ’s lowest fares between Poland and the rest of Europe, but also stimulate the local job market in aviation and tourism sectors, supporting more than 5000 jobs** this year in associated industries throughout the country.

Wizz Air now offers 162 low-fare routes from its eight Polish airports.

George Michalopoulos, Chief Commercial Officer at Wizz Air, said: „We continuously monitor travel demand to best meet the needs of our customers through low ticket fares and great services as well as capacity planning, adequate to the market. Following the recent announcement of significant expansion at our Gdansk, Wroclaw and Warsaw bases, after careful consideration we decided to optimize our network and reallocate capacity to 10 long-awaited routes with high demand. Increasing our seat capacity by 27% in 2018, we stay committed to our Polish customers and keep on offering the lowest possible fares, which are always paired with an excellent onboard experience. We thank our colleagues at the Lublin base for their hard work and very much hope that they will take up the opportunity to continue their careers with Wizz Air at other Polish bases.”

*one-way, including taxes and non-optional charges

**ACI suggests creation of 750 on-site jobs for every 1 million carried passengers per year