Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air is continuing its gradual reentry to the Ukrainian market, and will add a new route between Lviv and the Polish city of Wroclaw in April, the company announced at a press conference on Jan. 18.
Wizz Air closed its Ukrainian subsidiary in the spring of 2015, citing poor business conditions, and pared back its flights from Ukraine to just eight routes flying from Kyiv.
The Lviv-Wroclaw flight will be launched on April 13 and will operate twice a week, with the lowest price of a ticket being Hr 619.
Besides the new route to Wroclaw, Wizz Air is launching flights to Warsaw, Nuremberg, and Copenhagen from Kyiv in 2017. The company will also base a second aircraft in Kyiv starting from August. As of now, all the Ukrainian flights are operated by just one aircraft, an Airbus A320.
Speaking at a press conference, Wizz Air CCO Owain Jones said the new flight was a sign of “a market recovery” after the company had closed its Ukrainian subsidiary, left the Lviv market, and reduced flights from Kyiv in response to ongoing instability caused by Russia’s war in eastern Ukraine and the devaluation of Ukraine’s hryvnia.
“We’re now seeing a market recovery and that we are now able to put back more capacity into the market to serve our loyal Ukrainian customers,” Jones said.
Wroclaw, Poland’s fourth largest city, has close links to Lviv as a twin city, and serves as a hub for cultural and tourist exchanges. The flight will be convenient for Ukrainians, as 75 percent of passengers traveling from Wroclaw to Lviv are Ukrainians, the head of Lviv’s Danylo Halytskyi International Airport Tetyana Romanovska said at the press conference. Through Wroclaw, passengers can connect to another nine Wizz Air flights, she said.
“This is a totally new route for Lviv, and Poland is very close to Lviv, as it is only 70 kilometers (to the border),” Romanovska said. “We also dream about connections to other historical cities and other European cities. But through Wroclaw we have a bridge to Europe.”
Plans to launch flights to other European countries from Lviv are currently under discussion, Jones said. He said he was aware there was strong demand for flights between Lviv, Italy, and Spain, where many Ukrainian work migrants live, but said the company has no other plans to share yet for other Ukrainian airports.
Wizz Air over the last six months has expanded the number of routes it offers from Kyiv. The airline currently has 18 flights from Ukraine advertised on its website, including the newly introduced Lviv-Wroclaw route.
Although the airline doesn’t plan to relaunch its Ukrainian subsidiary, Jones said the adding of the new destination would create 36 jobs in Ukraine.
Further potential for expansion depends on the introduction of a visa-free travel regime between Ukraine and the EU, which is expected to be introduced in the spring of 2017.
Visa-free travel will increase passenger flows and be “a game changer” on the market, Jones said.
