Wizz Air! Get on board!

The UK’s airline of choice Post-Brexit, (potentially).

So, who are Wizz Air and why might they become the UK holiday makers airline of choice Post-Brexit?

Jozsef Varadi, Chief Executive Officer of Wizz Air, the Budapest-based airline, which offers routes from London to fast-growing non-EU destinations, takes a refreshingly frank but confident approach in answer to Brexit complications for airlines.

Varadi, simply finds the furore around Brexit ‘tiring’ and ‘would like to see the end of it, whatever it is.’ This contrasts with the cautious approach taken by some rivals. EasyJet recently raised concerns about how Brexit will affect demand. No such worries for Wizz Air as, according to Varadi, demand remains robust, while ‘current performance … is pretty solid’, with net profit for the year in the upper half of its guidance, showing a growth of 30 percent in London since the Brexit vote.

Varadi concedes that Wizz Air still have work to do to meet EU rules post Brexit. Due to share ownership rules, airlines that are not majority owned by EU nationals are set to lose their right to fly within the bloc after Britain leaves the EU.

Wizz Air are not close to being 50% owned by EU nationals outside of Britain. To resolve the issue, Varadi is seeking more EU investors, as well as, setting up a subsidiary in Britain to protect Wizz Air flights between the EU and the UK after Brexit and flights from the UK to elsewhere. In addition, like other airlines, Wizz Air has clauses in its articles of association which allow it to remove voting rights from all non-EU shareholders as a last resort.

Seemingly, Wizz is not fizzed and Varadi does not; ‘think that we’re going to end up with a disastrous scenario on aviation’, post-Brexit. He believes Britain should ‘just get it done and move beyond Brexit’. A positive outlook and sentiment, that might just get a warm welcome from UK holiday makers, seeking a Brexit / post-Brexit getaway, and who might just check-out Wizz Air.

© 2019 Whitestone Chambers

www.whitestonechambers.com

law@whitestonechambers.com

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *