Abu Dhabi | May 3, 2020-Wizz Air, the largest low-cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe and Europe’s greenest airline*, announced today five new routes from Abu Dhabi International Airport (AUH). The routes will connect the capital of United Arab Emirates with Budapest and Bucharest from June 2020 and with Cluj-Napoca, Katowice and Sofia from September 2020, subject to aviation activities being resumed in the respective countries. Wizz Air becomes the first European Low Cost carrier to launch flights to Abu Dhabi.

This announcement supplements the agreement in March formalising the establishment of Wizz Air Abu Dhabi as a local airline based in Abu Dhabi in partnership between ADQ and Wizz Air. It is Wizz Air’s first airline established outside of Europe, and is expected to begin operations later this year.

It is intended that Wizz Air will focus on establishing routes to markets in which Wizz Air has existing, high growth operations, namely Central and Eastern and Western Europe, as well as the Indian subcontinent, Middle East and Africa, over the long run.

Shareef Al Hashmi, Chief Executive Officer of Abu Dhabi Airports, commented: “Wizz Air’s new routes to Budapest, Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Katowice and Sofia highlights our commitment to connecting Abu Dhabi with the most sought after global destinations. These new routes positively reflect the industry’s resilience and its capability to continue pushing forward with bold plans that will stimulate consumer demand and the sustained recovery of the aviation market. As our newest landing partner, we welcome Wizz Air and its first routes with open arms as we get set to facilitate the carrier’s exciting Abu Dhabi expansion plans. Visitors from Hungary, Romania, Poland and Bulgaria can look forward to enjoying our modern terminal facilities with a unique brand of Arabian hospitality before seamlessly heading out to experience the UAE’s thriving capital city, Abu Dhabi.”

József Váradi, CEO of Wizz Air Holdings said: “Today’s announcement underpins our long term dedication to bringing low fares combined with a high quality onboard experience to ever more customers in Abu Dhabi. I am delighted that our operations at Abu Dhabi International Airport will begin in June, subject to lifting the travel bans, connecting the capital of the United Arab Emirates with five major cities of Central and Eastern Europe as Budapest, Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Katowice and Sofia. We are convinced that our passengers will appreciate the convenient flight schedules, the easy online booking system and the wide range of tailor-made travel options Wizz Air offers. Wizz Air’s mission feeds into Abu Dhabi’s diversified economic strategy as we continue to stimulate traffic by creating demand to the benefit of growing Abu Dhabi’s touristic and economic diversity. We look forward to welcoming passengers on board our young, green and ultra-efficient fleet, while we pay extra attention to the health and well-being of our passengers and crew.”

Abu Dhabi is Wizz Air’s newest destination, attracting many passengers from five major cities of four biggest countries of Central and Eastern Europe. These services will be the first direct routes between the capital of the United Arab Emirates and Budapest, Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Katowice and Sofia adding an almost 220 thousand seat capacity to the airline’s Abu Dhabi network per year. Flights are already on sale and can be booked at wizzair.com from as low as EUR 59.99**. In the case of travel bans, imposed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, impacting the start date of the flights, the passengers with bookings for the affected flights will have a chance to rebook for a later date, get full cash refund or 120% of the value of the booking in WIZZ Credit that can be used for purchase of WIZZ flights and services.

Safety measures

As passenger and crew safety has always been Wizz Air’s top priority, the airline has recently announced several additional measures to support physical distancing during boarding and enhanced cleanliness on board. The measures are easy to follow and help ensure the most sanitary conditions.

The airline asks passengers to handle bookings online where possible, including online check-in, baggage drop-off as well as opting in for contactless payment during onboard purchases. Wearing masks onboard is obligatory for crew and passengers, thus all are reminded to travel in masks.

The aircraft is thoroughly cleaned several times a day and is disinfected overnight, the crew will also handout sanitizing pads to passengers at boarding as well as will observe seat distancing for passengers on flights where the load factor allows. 

Wizz Air is also launching a special information campaign to inform passengers about current development in the context of COVID-19 and provide useful tips for a safe journey.

• A total of 110 airlines plan routes using the flight planning system from Lufthansa Systems

Raunheim, Germany | December 3, 2015– The year 2015 was a successful one for the Lido/Flight flight planning system from Lufthansa Systems. In addition to several new contracts, contract renewals and product implementations, the experts of the airline IT specialist are working on the new generation of the solution, Lido/Flight 4D. Lido/Flight is being used successfully worldwide by leading airlines of all sizes, business models and alliances – including low-cost, network, cargo and charter airlines.

Lido/Flight has performed successfully in the market for more than 15 years. This year, the customer base expanded to comprise a total fleet of around 5,800 aircraft. A total of 110 airlines are currently using Lido/Flight to calculate over 30,000 flights daily. Lufthansa Systems acquired important new customers for its flight planning solution in 2015, and several existing customers renewed their contracts. “We are especially proud of our eight successful implementations – the most extensive and, in terms of the Chinese market, most important one being the implementation for China’s largest airline, China Southern. After the project implementation phase, it’s always nice to see our customers profiting from our solution in their daily business and planning optimal routes with Lido/Flight,” said Dr. Bernd Jurisch, Vice President Lido/Flight at Lufthansa Systems.

Lufthansa Systems also offers its customers the opportunity to set up a cross-airline platform for Lido/Flight. Two such platforms were successfully introduced for customers this year so that the participating partner airlines can leverage synergies and plan their flights even more efficiently. There are a number of advantages to a shared platform: First, the airlines save money thanks to the simplified infrastructure because every participating customer can access the same system from their respective sites. They also benefit from operational advantages – both in their daily work and in the event of operational irregularities. This is because the shared platform enables all of the partners to plan each other’s routes and comprehensively optimize processes in the Operations Control Center. A total of three platforms are in use, one involving four airlines and two with three airlines each.

The core features of the flight planning solution are the integrated and continually updated aeronautical database and the so-called optimizer. Based on all flight-related data, weather conditions and the current airspace situation including any restrictions, Lido/Flight fully automatically or interactively calculates the most suitable route for each flight. The system has around 2,700 configuration parameters, enabling it to be adapted to specific customer requirements and regulations. Lido/Flight provides dispatchers with significant optimization options regarding flight time, fuel consumption or costs of each flight. In various comparative analyses based on more than 4,000 flight plans, Lido/Flight was able to reduce fuel costs by an average of 2 percent, cut flying times by 1.9 percent and save 1.6 percent of air traffic control fees compared to its competitors.

Lufthansa Systems is working closely with its customers and partners on the further development of the system. The focus is on modern 4D optimization based on various target functions as well as the further automation of flight planning and control processes. “With Lido/Flight 4D, we will meet future flight planning and control demands while expanding our market share at the same time,” Jurisch explained. “We will continue to focus on this project in the new year.”