Wizz Air Launchs Flights to London Luton, Bucharest and Skopje
Further cities added to the program after successful launch of London Luton/ Bucharest in Romania and Skopje in North Macedonia launched / further direct flights from Salzburg planned
WIZZ Air launched its first flights to Salzburg from London Luton back in February. Many guests used the flight connection for a trip to Salzburg to spend their vacation in the surrounding winter sport regions. Further flight connections were announced at the same time as the first flights from Great Britain. "Following the successful launch of the London Luton flights, we are now looking forward to the new city connections to Skopje and Bucharest. Further flight connections with WIZZ are on the agenda - we will see where it will go - a sunny destination in Italy would be nice," says Bettina Ganghofer, Managing Director of the airport. The flight schedule from Salzburg is now being expanded with two new WIZZ city destinations. The south-eastern European region is particularly interesting for the central Salzburg area, as many people living in the region have their roots in these areas and often still have family members living there. The two Balkan capitals are also considered important economic centers and are therefore also particularly attractive for business tourism. The new flight connections not only open up the Eastern European region to the people of Salzburg, they also bring many vacationers from Romania and North Macedonia to the Salzburg region. The unique mountain scenery of the Salzburger Land, the cultural capital of Salzburg, die numerous opportunities for excursions and outdoor sports as well as high-quality accomodation attract thousands of summer guests to Salzburg every year.
"We are delighted that - in addition to the UK market, which is so important for domestic tourism - the Eastern European region now also has further attractive opportunities to travel to SalzburgerLand with the WIZZ Air connections. Guests from Romania in particular love being active in the Alpine nature and especially skiing in our top winter sports resorts," says Leo Bauernberger, Managing Director of SalzburgerLand Tourismus Gesellschaft (SLTG).
From the tourism expert's perspective, the Romanian market in particular has great potential. Before the pandemic, SalzburgerLand recorded double-digit growth in overnight stays among guests from Romania. The market has recently recovered noticeably and, with around 150.000 overnight stays in the tourism year 2022/23, has already reached a strong four-fifths of the pre-corona level. "We assume that we will be able to match the result of 2018/19 in the current tourism year, not least thanks to the additional flights from Bucharest," says Bauernberger.
WIZZ Air aims at achieving a capacity utilization of around 90 percent, which would mean a potential of up to 100.000 additional passengers thanks to the WIZZ flight connections. “WIZZ Air flies to Salzburg with modern aircrafts, mostly Airbus Neo class - young, environmentally friendly planes, which you hardly hear anymore”, says Ganghofer, delighted to welcome the Neo-class to the airport.
WIZZ is growing by an average of 25 percent annually and is adding around 30 to 40 new aircraft to its existing fleet. If the Salzburg business with the three destinations develops well, further destinations and flight could be added each year, according to WIZZ.
Discover Skopje and Bucharest
Anyone who thinks that Skopje and Bucharest are not suitable as vacation destinations is mistaken. Skopje is the capital of North Macedonia, about a quarter of the total population of North Macedonia lives and works there. As the economic and cultural center of the country, Skopje is conveniently located on the Vardar River and is historically one of the oldest settlements in the heart of the Balkans. The region's eventful history has left many fascinating traces in Skopje, and the city is still a lively melting pot of different peoples and cultures today. Bucharest is not overrun by tourists and yet is an absolute insider tip for city travelers. In addition to a broad cultural offering with numerous museums, theaters and opera houses, Romania's vibrant capital boasts many green parks and architectural highlights from different eras. The 20th century buildings in particular are very much inspired by the French capital, which is why Bucharest is often referred to as the Paris of the East.
“Expanding our network from Salzburg underscores our dedication to Austria’s aviation sector. Wizz Air reaffirms its commitment to the Austrian passengers with the introduction of three routes from Salzburg Airport. Now, travellers located in Salzburg and the surrounding region, as well as travellers abroad wanting to visit this great region, have direct and convenient flights to Bucharest, Skopje, and London. Building on our track record of connecting over 8 million passengers to and from Vienna, we’re thrilled to add more accessibility to Salzburg, creating new travel experiences and stimulating tourism growth. We take pride in welcoming passengers aboard our new, industry leading sustainable aircraft, giving them the best customer experience”, says Robert Carey, President of Wizz Air.
About Wizz Air
Wizz Air, Europe's fastest growing ultra-low-cost airline, operates a fleet of 191 Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft. A team of aviation experts offers outstanding service and very low fares, making Wizz Air the preferred choice of 57.6 million passengers between October 2022 and September 2023. Wizz Air is listed on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol WIZZ. The airline was recently named one of the ten safest airlines in the world by airlineratings.com, the world's only safety and product ratings agency, and was named Airline of the Year in 2019 and 2023 by the Air Transport Awards. Wizz Air was also named "Most Sustainable Low-Cost Airline" (2021-2023) by the World Finance Sustainability Awards, "Airline Group of the Year for Global Environmental Sustainability" (2022-2023) by CAPA-Centre for Aviation Awards for Excellence and "Europe's Leading Low-Cost Airline 2023" by World Travel Awards.
