Wizz Air calls for end of slot waivers to grow Gatwick base

Wizz Air (W6, Budapest) is trying to prevent the extension of the “use-it-or-lose-it” slot rule waiver beyond the end of the current Summer 2020 season as it hopes to be able to acquire more slots at London Gatwick, Chief Executive József Váradi told Bloomberg. “It distorts the market should the slot waiver get extended into the winter period. We think it should firmly end at the end of October and the market should decide who gets those slots,” Váradi said. Under normal conditions, European Union rules require airlines to use their slots in at least 80% of cases or face losing them during the next scheduling season. However, the rule was suspended by the European Commission during the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic to prevent airlines from operating “ghost flights” i.e. with no passengers and just to protect their key slots. Discussions about extending the waiver through March 2021 are ongoing, with most of the airlines, particularly legacy carriers, in support. Wizz Air has been one of the most vocal opponents to the restoration of normal slot usage rules which could come as early as late October 2020. Váradi said that London Gatwick was the most obvious issue for the low-cost carrier. Wizz Air plans to open a base there with a single A321-200 on October 22, 2020. However, he said that the base could grow to 20 aircraft within a year with as many as 800 staff employed directly by the LCC. While normally slot-constrained, Gatwick has been operating at around 30% of its capacity due to a near-complete suspension of operations by its second- and third-largest airlines, British Airways (BA, London Heathrow) and Norwegian (DY, Oslo Gardermoen) (including Norwegian UK) respectively. Virgin Atlantic (VS, London Heathrow) suspended all flights from Gatwick, while dominant carrier easyJet is ramping up its schedule albeit less aggressively than Wizz Air.