Last summer, Wizz abruptly announced it was leaving Doncaster Sheffield airport, precipitating the airport’s closure.

This was followed by the new year announcement that it was quitting Cardiff airport despite only opening a base there in April 2022, promising nine routes to popular holiday destinations.

All this comes after a summer of disruption from the carrier and threats from the CAA over refunds that stretch back to the pandemic.

In December, the CAA ranked Wizz as "clearly" the worst airline for having complaints escalated to alternative dispute resolution (ADR) schemes or the CAA’s own in-house complaints team.

Wizz Air’s tally stood at 811 complaints per million passengers in the third quarter. With only one exception, other airlines "had less than half as many complaints, and many significantly less", the CAA said. Wizz was also criticised by the CAA for the “large number” of County Court Judgments found against it that remained unpaid.

So, is it all going wrong for Wizz? In PR terms in the UK, undoubtedly yes, but a look at the bigger picture tells you another story.

Firstly, Wizz’s exit from two small UK airports is not a sign of any sudden financial difficulty.

Airport disruption and staff shortages saw Wizz lose €384.3 million in the six months to 30 September, but within this, it made a profit of €68.2 million in the summer peak.

Moreover, the results, detailed in November revealed a cash pile of €1.63 billion, a stash that grew by 18% over a 12-month period.

Wizz has arguably recovered from the pandemic faster than other carriers. In December 2022, the airline carried 4.2 million passengers, filling an average of 84.5% of its seats on each flight.

During the same month in 2019, it carried fewer passengers – 3.3 million – albeit with a slightly better load factor of 89.4%.

Eastern ambitions

Wizz may have an image problem here, but it is still filling its planes in continental Europe, which the Hungarian carrier counts as its stronghold.

Wizz operates to 200 airports in 50 countries, so while its decision to axe Cardiff is a blow to the airport, it is less significant to Wizz, which regularly shuffles its fleet around Europe.

Its latest financial report details how it has shifted 17 aircraft around, including removing two from the Balkan states and placing four in Abu Dhabi. Cardiff and Doncaster, with one aircraft each, were dots on the map compared with – say – Italy, where Wizz is adding 750,000 seats from Rome and Milan and 12 new routes.

Moreover, it has big ambitions in the Middle East; it has doubled its fleet in Abu Dhabi to eight aircraft and in September launched the first of 23 routes to Saudi Arabia. Wizz estimates the Saudi market, which is gradually opening, will be short of 90 million seats in the next decade and plans to fill some of this gap.

Wizz has big ambitions and, to put it bluntly, Doncaster and Cardiff perhaps pale into insignificance when compared with the likes – and riches – of Riyadh, Jeddah, Abu Dhabi, Athens and Rome.

Gary Noakes is TTG’s senior contributor and analyst.