Routes taking off on Sunday (27 March) included Faro, Milan, Naples, Palma, Rome, Tel Aviv, Venice and Vienna, with fares leading in from as low as £8.99pp.

On Monday (28 March), Wizz’s new routes to Bari and Funchal got under way, and will be followed on Tuesday (29 March) by Palermo.

Other upcoming launches include Chania (7 April), Podgorica (9 April), Bourgas and Catania (11 April), Larnaca (12 April), Mykonos (2 June) and Varna (13 June).

Wizz set up a base at Gatwick in October 2020 and secured 15 daily slot pairs in December last year, allowing it to base an additional four Airbus A321neo aircraft there – now five in total. Wizz is now offering 25 destinations from Gatwick.

It said the new routes would create more than 200 direct jobs in the Gatwick area, and "many more" indirect ones. Wizz is recruiting for cabin and flight crew at Gatwick.

The carrier also last week invited redundant P&O Ferries staff to apply for cabin crew roles across its UK network, and has also pledged to give its UK air crew their "biggest ever pay rise".

Marion Geoffroy, Wizz Air UK managing director, hailed the launch of the new routes as "the start of an exciting new chapter for Wizz", adding the recent lifting of UK travel restrictions had come as an "extremely positive development for the travel industry and passengers alike". "We are reaffirming our commitment to providing low-fare connectivity to our customers in London and the south-east," said Geoffrey.

Gatwick chief commercial officer Jonathan Pollard said the move was "fantastic news" for the local economy, while Crawley MP Henry Smith added: "With both the airline and airport’s commitment to sustainability, customer choice, service and good value, it’s a natural partnership which represents the very best of our aviation sector’s recovery following Covid restrictions being lifted."