Wizz Air to become first LCC to open domestic routes in Bulgaria

28.11.2007

Budget air carrier Wizz Air Tuesday announced on its website that it would expand its Sofia base by deploying an additional new A320 aircraft starting from 12 July 2008.

The airline will start new flights from Sofia to the domestic Varna airport, on the Black Sea, becoming the first low cost airline to operate domestic flights in Bulgaria.

Concurrently, the launch of the Sofia-Izmir flight will be the first low fare route from Bulgaria outside of the EU, said Wizz Air.

Tickets are already on sale with one way all inclusive fares starting from as low as 9.99 euro for Varna. The average price for a one-way fare will be 60-80 levs if it is purchased on the day of the flight, said József Váradi, chief executive officer of Wizz Air. Travelers will pay additional charges for non-carry-on luggage.

The Wizz Air fare is around ten times cheaper than competing offers from Hemus Air, the only other carrier currently flying between the capital and coastal airports Varna and Burgas. The price is even lower than bus and train fares available to these destinations from Sofia.

Wizz Air also said will be adding routes to Milan-Bergamo, Valencia, Barcelona and Izmir (Turkey), and will increase frequencies on existing services to London, Rome and Dortmund.

Germanwings is expected to announce Wednesday its plans for Bulgaria which will include the launch of 5-6 new external destinations.

Another no-frills carrier operating on the local market, SkyEurope, said it has no plans for domestic routes at this point.

BDZ, the national railway carrier, currently offers one-way fares to Varna at 21.90 levs.

Wizz Air said it expects to fly 156,000 passengers to and from Bulgaria in 2007 and to increase their number to 1 mln by 2010. According to company data, it currently has a 35% share of the Bulgarian low cost air travel market. (Dnevnik)

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