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Summary
- Wizz Air will build a new permanent base at Cardiff Airport creating 40 direct and 250 indirect jobs
- Cardiff is the latest addition to the list company’s existing four bases in the UK including Gatwick, Doncaster, Sheffield, Birmingham, and Luton
- Cardiff Airport is a very popular airport for holidaymakers visiting European and Mediterranean holiday destinations
British budget airline Wizz Air Holdings has announced to build a new permanent base at Cardiff Airport, opening nine routes to holiday destinations in Europe and the Mediterranean. Cardiff Airport was previously used be Flybe to ferry hundreds and thousands of holidaymakers to these destinations prior to this year before it became bankrupt.
The objective of Wizz Air’s new move seems to tap into the large market of holidaymakers to fast pace its recovery process and tap the early movers’ advantage before others also arrive to claim their share of the market. The company has also stated, that opening of this base will create 40 direct and 250 indirect jobs in the neighbouring areas.
A move directly impacting the tourism sector
The move by Wizz Air while allowing holidaymakers in Wales to go to their favourite holiday destinations will also help local travel agents and tourism companies. The outbreak of the Covid-19 and the closedown of some of the medium sized airline companies like Flybe had hit the tourism sector in the country hard.
The airbridge scheme launched by the government though opened up skied for the tourism business but the slow traffic uptake because of the continuing fear of the virus infection has kept revenues in the sector subdued. Opening of these nine routes by Wizz Air will hopefully give a big boost to the tourism sector.
Pandemic’s current situation in Europe
Unlike most places in the world, Europe has been witnessing a second wave of the pandemic. Though many countries imposed localised lockdown to bring this second wave under control, but the United Kingdom went ahead and imposed a second countrywide lockdown from the 5th of November to 2nd of December.
The holiday season is the most important part of the year for the Airline industry when a major rush is seen in passengers going home or visiting their loved ones. Most airlines currently operating in Europe expect to make the most of this season to cover some of the losses suffered during the year.
British Airline sector
The expansion of Wizz Air into Cardiff airport can be seen as a sign of improvement in operating conditions in the British Airline sector. Though nowhere close to what the market was in January 2020, but people are taking adequate precautions and coming out to fly, helping the airline sector slowly inch towards recovery.
The share price performance of Wizz Air Holdings Plc (LON:WIZZ)
(Source- EODHD/Others Thomson Reuters)
The shares of Wizz Air Holdings Plc were trading at GBX 4,663.41 per share as on 3 December 2020, (9.24 AM GMT+1) gaining 1.91 per cent over the previous day’s close.
