Stratospheric strategy

Wizz Air, a Polish-Hungarian-owned low-cost airline, is rapidly expanding in Central and Eastern Europe and has announced plans to debut on the London Stock Exchange before the end of the year. The company is planning to open its first operating base in Romania in early to mid-June.

József Váradi, Wizz Air's chief executive, expects growth in Romania to be similar to the situation in Poland, which is the carrier's largest and most important market. He predicts his firm will become Romania's number one low-cost airline by the end of next year, transporting one million passengers to and from the country. Blue Air is Romania's current domestic-market leader.

Last year Wizz Air carried over three million passengers, a 50-percent increase from the previous year. "There will be over 1.8 million passengers flying Wizz Air to and from Poland this summer," said Natasa Kázmér, Wizz Air's director of communications and public affairs. "We are expecting to carry four-and-a-half million passengers by the end of 2007 and add an average of six to eight new aircraft every year until 2012," she added.

Wizz Air is currently the largest low-cost airline in Poland, as well as in its other regular markets, which include Bulgaria and Hungary. Last week the airline celebrated its third anniversary.