Since the start of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, one of the biggest questions in aviation (and indeed) generally has been the matter of when the world will return to normal. Low-cost carrier Wizz Air is confident that a state of normality will have returned by next year. Indeed, it has launched its summer 2022 schedule, and plans to operate at full capacity.
A normal summer next year
Travel restrictions in Europe are currently making it challenging for Wizz Air‘s passengers to be able to commit to booking trips with the Hungarian low-cost carrier this summer. However, travelers appear to have greater confidence levels when it comes to organizing trips abroad in a year’s time, when they can foresee a more normal state of affairs.
As a result, airlines like Wizz have begun launching their schedules for summer 2022. They hope to subsequently cash in on the pent-up demand from passengers who want to travel, but for whom the current climate is too unpredictable. In an exclusive webinar interview with Simple Flying, Wizz Air’s Chief Commercial Officer, George Michalopoulos, explained:
“We’re starting to see bookings, so I think there is an increasing view, both from ourselves and consumers that things are going to be back to normal next summer. We certainly plan to operate at full capacity next summer. And bookings are certainly coming in.”
How to achieve this normality
Of course, certain aspects will need to fall into place for Wizz Air and other carriers to return to ‘normal’ operations as they were in 2019. For Michalopoulos, vaccination programs hold the key in this regard. Indeed, he told Simple Flying that:
“I think the vaccine is really the game-changer. Once you have a significant majority of the population double vaccinated, I think that’s really going to ease things.”
However, Michalopoulous also believes policy coordination will be an important factor in paving the way back to normality for airlines and their passengers. He added:
“One of the biggest issues has been [that] every country, even within the European Union, has applied different policies. And it’s created a lot of confusion amongst consumers. And, as a result, traffic has been penalized.”
Stay informed: Sign up for our daily and weekly aviation news digests.
Summer 2021 also looking busy
While Wizz Air has big plans for next year, it is also not as if summer 2021 is going to be a quiet one either. Indeed, the Hungarian budget carrier is actually set to exceed its 2019 levels of operations in Q3 this year by an impressive factor of nearly 20%.
As Simple Flying reported last week, this represents a 24.2% increase in seats across the airline’s busy schedules. It will also result in a 23.4% increase in seat miles compared to Q3 of 2019. The presence of Wizz Air Abu Dhabi, which wasn’t flying in 2019, is a key factor.
What do you make of Wizz Air’s assertion that things will be back to normal next summer? Do you have any flights with the carrier on the horizon? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
from Simple Flying https://ift.tt/36MBpaL
via IFTTT
Comments
Post a Comment