Interview how a company from Hungary has arrived “The national facto operator of Romania” and how many Wizz Air flights delays on the 175 routes, explains the head of the largest airline in Romania

Wizz Air will bring 11 aircraft in Romania in the coming years and could launch longer flights and flights, up to eight hours, said in an interview for HotNews.ro, József Váradi, CEO of the company.

Wizz Air has flights from 13 airports in the country, to 24 countries, the number of routes operated being 175. The company transported 13 million passengers last year to its flights to and from Romania.

A total of 50 aircraft in Romania in the coming years

HotNews.ro: Recently, you announced the launch of some New races from Bucharest Baneasa Airport which becomes an important basis for the company. What are the Wizz Air plans for Romania? What new destinations would you like to launch?

József Váradi: Romania is a key strategic market for us, we have half of the local market, and in 2025 we want to increase the capacity by 15%. I also opened the base from Baneasa, where I worked a few years ago, but now I came back. We will continue to grow in Romania, we will get to operate with 50 planes over the next two or three years and we will launch new routes, but we will also create jobs.

The demand increases for Romania and we take this into account. Even if we are not the national operator of Romania, I would say that “de facto” we are the national operator. Romania is very important for Wizz Air, we will continue to invest here, and the country is in the top 3 markets for us, along with the United Kingdom and Poland.

Does not think Wizz will enter internal flights

– Did you say that you will reach a total of 50 aircraft that will operate in Romania, while the information recently announced by the company indicated that in the summer of 2025 the plan is to reach 39?
-Yes, it will be 50 and I think it will take us 2-3 years to get there.

– Do you have internal flights in Romania?
– I don't know. I had flights Bucharest – Cluj, but it didn't go too great. I do not think that our aircraft would be suitable, we have large planes with over 230 seats and here would need smaller aircraft, to fly more frequently. I would not say that we will never launch, but it is not among our priorities.

Think of long flights to the Middle East

– Have been announced recently Long -lasting Wizz Air flights from Budapest, to Mumbai, India. Are you going to launch long -term flights from Romania?
– Budapest – Mumbai flights have been announced by the Hungarian Foreign Minister, is not an official announcement. We plan such flights, we would like to launch them, but we have to solve everything related to regulations and certifications. It would be an opportunity for Romania, we will have aircraft capable of flying eight hours and we are looking for opportunities in the market for such capacity. Romania will be considered, since it is a key market for us, but we have not yet made a decision.

– The longest flights of Wizz Air in the world are those to Saudi Arabia, to Jeddah?
– Yes, London – Jeddah I think is the longest flight, somewhere for seven hours.

– You have longer flights to Australia or destinations over Atlantic?
– No. We will focus on Europe and the Middle East.

-In a world where everything passes online, have the boarding tickets printed on paper?
– I do not have the exact data, but certainly over 90% of our passengers use only online tickets and it is only a matter of time until they are totally eliminated.

– Have you set a certain deadline until you remove them?
– No.

“The prices of air tickets have increased less than those from hotels, from restaurants”

– The average price of air tickets continued to increase, even if not at the rhythm of past years. It is clear for customers that the time of tickets of 20-30 euros has passed. How do you see the evolution of ticket prices in the future?
– Salaries have increased, so people have more money available. I believe that the prices of air tickets have increased less than those at hotels, restaurants, energy price or rent. Wizz Air has fought with inflation and increasing prices for air tickets, and here it must be said that we went from 180 -seater planes, to some of 239, and through this movement I decreased the average operational costs.

And the price of tickets has increased in us, but not dramatically and does not compare as you pay for food, energy or costs. The price of tickets has increased below the inflation rate, there is an appetite for travel, and this is also seen in Romania, where we estimate a 15% increase in the number of tickets sold this year, which is not a little. Request exists, people want to travel.

József Váradi: “80% of flights arrived in time”

– Delays remain a big problem at European airports, You've talked about this issue and causesyou have also explained that – in some airports – they are little employed and the herds have not increased long after pandemic. The passengers in Romania complain about delays. How do you see the problem of delays this year?
– Let's look at the figures. The weight of the flights made is 99.8% for those in and to Romania, well over what was a year ago, and the share of Wizz Air flights that arrived on time was 80%, much better than last years. Our operational matrix has improved substantially in Romania, and these figures are among the best in Europe and not many airlines are doing better.

We must not forget that we are in a technical industry; Just as the racing cars are broken – and then they need to be repaired – and the airplanes can be damaged.

The planes depend on the weather conditions and we had severe weather phenomena in Romania and we had no choice, so we had to cancel some flights.

I also canceled flights due to strikes at a few European airports, and others were insufficient air traffic controllers and the consequence is that delays appear. It is an industry where the context matters enormously, and we have progressed a lot from year to year.

– When you say 80% weight of flights that arrived in time, do you refer to flights that have been delayed less than 15 minutes?
– Yes, this is the way of measuring in the industry.

“The big test will be in the summer”

-You have reminded the problems with air traffic controllers and referred to the crowds on the big European airports in the past. It will be better in 2025 to the past. Did the airports that have problems solved?
– Yes, some have taken measures, but the big test will be in the summer. We have no operational problems at present, we do not cancel flights and most arrive on time. The system will be tested to the maximum in the summer, when the number of flights will increase and when all these problems – agglomeration, insufficient employees, lack of traffic controllers – could create trouble. So far everything is going well.

Wizz Air says it will not give up human operators in Call-Center

-how the AI ​​changes how passengers can interact with Wizz Air. Do you have a chatbot, but what new services can customers have due to these fast changes in the chapter do you have?
– Most applications are focused on our daily operations and price management. We also use “Machine Learning” to maximum optimize the operational decisions related to the fleet, especially since we have over 230 aircraft and problems may occur in the solution to which the AI ​​has an essential role, especially since it can process huge amounts of information and we make sure that we make the right decisions.

We also use your income management, especially since we have many data flows, our sites receive over one billion visits and we intend to transport 75 million passengers this year. It is not possible to be processed through manual interactions, so you have to use AI technology to be efficient in those interactions. The AI ​​will play a key role in communicating with passengers.

-Are you going to eliminate, against the background of extending AI applications, people who answer call-center to passenger questions and problems?
-We have a chatbot for 4-5 years, we have already accumulated experience in the field and customer relationships are an area in which artificial intelligence is very useful to us.

-But will they be able to talk in the future to talk to real people, in the Call-Center? This option will be present in the coming years or will AI do everything?
-No, I don't think the AI ​​will get to do everything, but we will use it where it is more effective than human beings. There are more complicated issues or individual problems where the opinion and experience of a man will be needed in the future.