Strategic Options

Wizz Air has in the last year attempted to buy out one of its rivals, Easy Jet. At the time, the move seemed very favourable for the Hungarian carrier. While considering aspects such as the type of fleet, which is homogeneous with Wizz Air's fleet (A320 Family). Thus, the implementation of the Easy Jet fleet would not require additional training and practice for pilots. Additionally, it is important to consider the location of Easy Jet's base, which is at Luton, similar to Wizz Air. The purchase would have huge growth potential for Wizz Air also in terms of slots at Luton. If the agreement were to come to pass, it can be assumed that Wizz Air would be in a better position than its largest rival Ryanair. It is also worth mentioning the Boeing 737-Max grounding crisis, which affected Ryanair. Again, in terms of fleet, Ryanair group airlines are not homogeneous, which translates into the mentioned pilot training as well as aircraft maintenance and servicing. (Jolly and Topham, 2021). Ultimately, no agreement was reached as reported by Young and Ramnarayan (2021) and Easy Jet will continue to be a competitor to Wizz Air. Shortly after its failed attempt to buy out Easy Jet, Wizz Air decided to buy slots at Gatwick Airport from Norwegian Air (Davies, 2021). This allows Wizz Air to expand into an airport not previously used by the carrier, and holds the potential for new passengers from the South West London area.

However, currently with the ongoing war in Ukraine and blocked air traffic over Russia, the area of air traffic in this part of the world has become much denser (Brennan, 2022). Because of this fact and the operation of Wizz Air Abu Dhabi in the Middle East, it would be worth considering connections between larger airports such as Istanbul and Tehran. It can be assumed that the route for example to Moscow, where it used to operate, would now be fully booked. At present countries such as Turkey, China and India still operate connections to Russia. Wizz Air could therefore use the situation as an intermediary between, for example, Istanbul and Abu Dhabi without supporting the Russian offensive. Currently, this subsidiary of Wizz Air owns only four A321 registered aircraft (Planespotters, 2022). The operational strategy that Wizz Air could adopt at the moment is to reposition some of its aircraft when they are not in use in Europe to Abu Dhabi. The additional aircraft in the Middle East will allow Wizz to open new routes and benefit from the increased traffic in this part of the world at present.