Wizz Air slashes flights from Gatwick in scramble to cut costs

Wizz Air is slashing the number of flights it operates from Gatwick in a scramble to cut costs, the boss of the airline has said.

József Váradi, the chief executive of Wizz, said it was losing money flying out of Britain’s second-busiest airport because of high operating fees and poorly timed departure slots.

As part of a Europe-wide shake-up, the Budapest-based carrier will move more planes from Gatwick to Luton because of its lower costs.

“Gatwick is expensive and we have been operating an inferior set of slots there. We think that we can enhance financial performance by operating that capacity from Luton,” said Mr Váradi.

He added: “Circumstances change and you have to take action. Whichever bases give you the most profitability, you should be biased toward them. That includes moving aircraft over from Gatwick to Luton.”

Gatwick has been close to full for years, pushing up prices and making it tough for new entrants to build up flights.

A new £2.2bn runway to be converted from an emergency landing strip should double passenger numbers – but it won’t be fully open until the 2030s.

Mr Váradi said Wizz, which competes with Ryanair and easyJet, will begin by moving a single aircraft from Gatwick to Luton as part of an “ongoing process” to shift the fleet.

That would give Luton 13 aircraft and reduce the Gatwick fleet to seven.

Wizz has been scrambling to cut costs after grappling with the impact of the Ukraine war, which has caused chaos in some of its biggest destinations.

It has also been among the airlines worst hit by a global recall of faulty engines made by US giant Pratt & Whitney, which has forced it to ground up to 45 planes at a time for repairs.

Mr Váradi has responded by taking an increasingly hard line on cost cutting.

The closure of an Abu Dhabi-based offshoot of Wizz was announced in July, followed by a move to axe its base in Vienna because of “airport costs and taxes”.

Mr Váradi said there are no plans to leave Gatwick but that the base will be “optimised,” adding: “You have to churn your network for profit. We are simply more efficient financially in Luton.”

The airline boss said the decision to retreat from Gatwick had nothing to do with rival Jet2’s plans to base seven aircraft there from next year.

“Gatwick is stuck. It is so set with regard to slots that no newcomer can make any significant difference. Jet2 will be very sub-scale versus the established players,” he said.

While Wizz shares rose as much as 16pc last Thursday following higher than expected summer earnings, Mr Váradi said the winter period will be much tougher.