Wizzair against Malev
Hungary-based discount airline Wizz Air is mulling to turn to the European Union again over state aid granted by the state to national carrier Malév, said József Váradi, chief executive of the no-frills airline, in an interview with local daily Napi Gazdaság. Wizz Air considers a similar step it had taken before over further state grant for Malév.
The Hungarian state reached a final decision last spring to re-nationalise loss-making airline Malév. In response, Wizz Air requested the European Commission to look into the deal, saying the carrier’s recapitalisation would likely be unlawful state aid and as such it would constitute a violation of European Union state aid regulations.
"In fact this is another extravagant state aid, now to the tune of EUR 90 million, which is prohibited by European Union law," the airline said in March 2010.
The low-cost/low-fare carrier said it is precarious that the state is spending taxpayers’ money on an "investment" that lacks economic rationale, since no one on the market saw sense in investing into Malév. It also claimed the state aid was "clearly discriminative, distorts competition and offers no advantage whatsoever for passengers, either."
Now Wizz Air complains that as a taxpayer it is forced to finance its rival, Nap Gazdaság reported on Tuesday.
Wizz Air carried 9.6 million passengers in 2010, 23% more than in 2009 and its revenues also grew by 23% yr/yr. The average load factor throughout the year was 84%, same as in the previous year.
Without a string of traffic curbing events the airien would have had over 10 million passengers last year, Váradi said.
The CEO sees a 20% revenue growth this year. Wizz Air currently operates with a 34-strong fleet, but it had to reschedule a programme running until end-2017 on the purchase of 132 aircraft because the airline’s expansion turned out to be smaller than it had projected when the programme had been announced.
The carrier had forecast a 30% revenue growth both for 2010 and 2011 and 25-26% increase for 2012. But now it very much seems so that growth of about 20% is a more realistic estimate for the years to come.
From:
Portfolio.hu