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(Alliance News) - Budget airline Wizz Air Holdings PLC on Tuesday announced plans to expand its UK operations with a new base at Gatwick Airport.
This will be the third base for Wizz Air UK, the Budapest-based company's UK-registered airline, sitting alongside bases in London Luton and a recently announced Doncaster Sheffield base.
Wizz Air said it will allocate one Airbus A321 aircraft to Gatwick and launch four new routes to leisure destinations in Greece, Italy, Spain and Malta, beginning October 22.
The company began flights from Gatwick in 2016 with the new base meaning "even more affordable travel opportunities" for passengers, with 450,000 seats per year on sale for new routes to places like Athens, Naples, Lanzarote, and Malta for the rest of 2020.
"The addition of these new routes from Gatwick and Doncaster Sheffield represents significant growth of Wizz Air's UK network, with the airline now operating 119 routes to 69 destinations from 11 UK airports," the company said.
"The creation of these two new Wizz Air UK bases also follows on from a period of rapid growth across the entire Wizz Air network, with recent announcements of new WIZZ bases in Doncaster Sheffield, Bacau, Dortmund, Lviv, Larnaca, Milan-Malpensa, Tirana, Saint Petersburg and the launch of over 200 new routes across the network since April 2020."
Wizz Air shares were up 1.0% at 3,520.00 pence early Wednesday in London.
By Anna Farley; annafarley@alliancenews.com
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