Budget airline Wizz Air, routinely ranked as the worst airline in Europe, is betting its customers will “suffer the pain” of grueling long-haul budget flights as it introduced a new Airbus fleet capable of eight-hour journeys.
Speaking as it unveiled a new set of Airbus A321 XLR light-body aircraft, Wizz Air CEO József Váradi was confident passengers would snap up low-cost seats on flights capable of record distances for the airline.
The new Airbus planes allow Wizz Air to increase its maximum flight time from six hours to eight. The aircraft’s first route will start flying from London Gatwick to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, next March.
Fares will start at just £134.99 for U.K. passengers, while it will be cheaper still from Jeddah owing to the U.K.’s air passenger duty charge. Flights from London to Jeddah are expected to last seven hours, while flights the other way will take just over seven hours.
Wizz Air expects to add 250,000 extra seats from London on the new aircraft next year.
The seats will be the same configuration as on Wizz’s shorter-haul flights, meaning passengers won’t get the option to recline on their laborious trip to Saudi Arabia.
The idea of sitting on a Wizz Air flight for upwards of seven hours isn’t for the faint-hearted. The no-frills airline has been ranked Europe’s worst by Which? for two consecutive years, receiving just one star for both seat comfort and cabin environment and two stars in every other category.
The airline was also more likely to split up groups of passengers who didn’t pay for seat selection. An eight-hour flight is a significant amount of time to be separated from your flying companion.
Some 44% of Wizz Air passengers surveyed by Which? reported some sort of problem with their trip.
Wizz CEO Váradi dismissed the idea that passengers might balk at the prospect of enduring an eight-hour flight on his airline’s single-aisle, non-reclined seats.
“Look back 15-20 years ago, I thought three hours would test passenger tolerance,” Váradi told reporters at a press conference.
“I just think that economics are so crucial to people… that when you take a light body aircraft of any kind, and you take economy versus what most people do, you sacrifice some level of comfort.
“You are not on a flatbed. You suffer the pain if you wish for the economic benefits that you are deriving from the transaction,” he added.
Váradi said Wizz had no intention of looking to the West to operate budget flights across the Atlantic to the U.S. with its new aircraft.
“We don’t want to be bullied in the ocean,” Váradi said, indicating a lack of competitiveness in the transatlantic market.
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