Wizz Air Abu Dhabi is operating at full pre-Covid volumes despite the pandemic’s lingering negative impacts on the sector, according to Robert Carey, the carrier’s president.
“As of August 2021, we are flying 100 percent of our 2019 capacity and have been maintaining that figure..we hope to continue growing from here,” Carey (pictured below) told Arabian Business.
The Emirati low-cost airline, a joint venture between Abu Dhabi-based holding company ADQ and Wizz Air Holdings, is witnessing promising recovery. Carey said: “Passenger volumes are still a bit down, but progressing well. At a group level, we would historically do between 90 and 95 percent load factor – we’re now up to 80 percent.”
By December, Wizz Air is expected to operate about 130 aircrafts across its group, an increase from its pre-Covid figure of 110 aircrafts.
“Passengers are eager to travel – they’re eager to get back and get out there again,” added Carey.
On the key challenges hindering the sector’s recovery and discouraging travellers from taking to the skies again, Carey said: “I think the biggest barrier still remains to be the changing government regulations…they’ve added an element of complexity for frequent travellers.”
However, he believes that these regulations are slowly easing, especially for vaccinated travellers, in which he said: “We see a new evolution emerging for vaccinated travellers – they are fairly free to move around. For unvaccinated travellers, not only are we seeing more restrictions, but in some cases even a ‘penalty restriction’ where if you’re unvaccinated, you may be allowed in only if you self-quarantine or follow other rigorous processes.”
As of this week, a total of 21.4 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered, according to the UAE’s Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP), raising the rate of doses to 216.4 per 100 people.
Carey also highlighted the importance of restoring people’s confidence in travel. He said: “We’re up to 80 percent load factor, which is good, but we want to get back to 90 – 95 percent. There’s a number of passengers who still haven’t travelled in a year and a half, two years and we want to get them back to traveling again.”
Middle East-based airlines registered a 67.1 percent drop in passenger demand in September compared to September 2019 as the impact of the pandemic continues to weigh on performance, according to data by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
Regional capacity also declined to 52.6 percent and load factor slipped 23.1 percent to 52.2 percent.
Carey presented an overall optimistic view for the recovery of the region’s aviation industry. He said: “We’re seeing healthy indicators in the underlying business….passenger load factor is growing and coming back as restrictions ease.”
Wizz Air Abu Dhabi added new routes following eased travel restrictions in the UAE capital, which include Moscow (Russia), Baku (Azerbaijan), and Tel Aviv (Israel).
Carey stated that the industry is witnessing “healthy indicators in the underlying business”, helping the airline realise its goals for the UAE, which includes “stimulating the market” and “growing new passenger segments and routes”.
“We’re not interested in stealing existing traffic or connecting passengers over on the web, we want to bring passengers to and from here and that’s the core of what we’re going to look to grow,” he added.
Looking ahead, Carey said: “Over the next two years, what you’ll see from us is more growth in route network, more fleets, and an expansion in the number of destinations and frequency of trips.”
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