Wizz Air ramps up operations at UK's Luton airport

Wizz Air said Monday it would offer new routes from London’s Luton airport to Cyprus, Slovakia, Estonia, Ukraine and Albania. Budapest-based Wizz Air set up a base in Luton in June - its first in Western Europe - and in October it applied for a UK Air Operator’s Certificate, to guard against the uncertainty over a Brexit aviation deal. The airline’s exposure to central and eastern Europe has shielded it from the fiercest competition on Mediterranean and Western European routes, which contributed to the demise of the likes of Monarch and Air Berlin. As well as offering new routes from Luton, Wizz said on Monday that it would increase its frequency on routes from Luton to Israel, Romania and Kosovo, which are seeing strong demand, and would allocate four more planes to its fleet at Luton by June 2018. “Part of our rationale for the UK base, the UK airline, is a Brexit contingency, but equally it’s a commercial opportunity,” Chief Corporate Officer Owain Jones said, saying Britain would remain vital to Wizz after Brexit.<br/>