Wizz Air tries to fly into the lead with new plane, base and investments

"We will employ 70 people in the new base," declared the Wizz Air president Jozsef Varadi, "It will cost us EUR 5-6 million annually." Moreover, the airline is to allocate one more plane to Warsaw's Okęcie airport. The plane will begin flights in December. "We will spend EUR 12-13 million in total to increase our presence in Poland," stated Varadi. After 17 months of operations on the Polish market, the airline has carried 1.3 million passengers. It currently sells 39% of all tickets offered by budget airlines operating in the country and, "We have a 12% share of the airline market," informed Varadi and added that thanks to the new base his company wants to carry two million passengers in and out of Poland next year. Wizz Air's plans are based on its forecast of the development of the national budget airline market. "I believe in Poland's potential," declared Varadi, "By 2010 ten million passengers will use the services of low-cost carriers here and they will account for half of all passengers traveling by air." (Puls Biznesu, p. 10) E.B.