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BTS: Wizz Air's Withdrawal Could Have Been Expected
Thursday 19 November 2009 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, November 19 (TASR) - According to M.R. Stefanik Airport in Bratislava (BTS), the giving up of airline Wizz Air's plans to establish a base for its flights in the Slovak capital was to have been expected, since the airline had unacceptable demands, speaker of Bratislava airport business and marketing section Radek Zabransky told TASR on Thursday.
"So we, understandably, started to get the feeling that these, lets say totally non-standard requirements ... help explain why the negotiations would end unsuccessfully," said Zabransky. He added that as far as the business questions are concerned, the Slovak airport reached agreement with Wizz Air. "Unfortunately, there were 'non-business' requests that were quite unacceptable for us," he explained.
According to these requests, M.R. Stefanik Airport would have to provide commitments that would be hard to fulfil. For example, the airport would have to take full responsibility for a protection of the planes in terms of a potential collision with birds to a certain height. As well, Wizz Air refused to make any commitments with regard to the volume of transported passengers. It also requested the contract to respect British Law, while the company itself is Hungarian.
Wizz Air announced earlier on Thursday that following the lengthy but ultimately unsuccessful negotiations with M.R. Stefanik Airport that it has decided to give up its plans to establish a base for its flights in the Slovak capital. "We're disappointed, but we've been unable to reach agreement on business terms with Bratislava Airport," according to Wizz Air executive vice-president John Stephenson. As a result, the company will halt its Bratislava-Rome flights as of January 11.
Wizz Air is the largest low-cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe. It operates more than 150 flights in 21 countries and has transported more than 7.5 million passengers over the past 12 months. It currently operates from bases in 11 CEE locations - in Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Romania and, as of recently, in the Czech Republic as well.
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