After being unavoidably delayed by the pandemic, Wizz Air is ready to expand into Wales with the long-awaited introduction of a new base at Cardiff Airport. The new base is the airline's fourth within the United Kingdom and will be serving nine new routes to summer-favorite destinations across Europe and beyond.

The fast-growing budget carrier will be flying to Alicante, Faro, Heraklion, Larnaca, Lanzarote, Palma de Mallorca, and Tenerife from Cardiff Airport. Then in mid-June, Wizz Air is scheduled to start flight services to Corfu, and after that, the introduction of flight services to Sharm El Sheikh in early November.

First footing in Wales

Having a base at Cardiff Airport will mark the airline's first venture into Wales, as it also represents a significant investment in the airport and the surrounding local community - by creating over 40 direct jobs and over 250 indirect jobs.

Managing Director of Wizz Air UK, Marion Geoffroy, had expressed in great delight:

This is a very exciting time for Wizz Air in the UK, as we celebrate the opening of our highly anticipated base at Cardiff Airport. We’ve been busy building our Cardiff team, and as we continue to recruit, we encourage those looking for their next adventure to apply today. We look forward to the upcoming summer season, as we welcome new passengers with affordable, direct flights to popular holiday destinations."

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Tickets are already available now for flights from Cardiff, on both the airline's website and mobile app. Photo: Getty Images

Vital economic industries such as aviation, hospitality, tourism, and transportation will see an increase in support as Wizz Air connects Wales to several popular holiday destinations to boost the local economy. The annual capacity of Cardiff Airport will be expanded by over 330,000 seats, giving local passengers cheaper and more exciting travel opportunities.

New hometown airline for Cardiff

Besides the launch of a new base, Wizz Air was additionally announced as the new title sponsor of the Cardiff Half Marathon, the first of which is set to take place on October 2nd.

This sponsorship aids to strengthen the airline's successful partnerships with running events across Europe, with the likes of other cities such as Budapest, Bucharest, and Skopje. With the sponsorship, Wizz Air is demonstrating its strong commitment to Cardiff as the new ultra-low-cost hometown airline - as affirmed by Chief Executive Officer of Cardiff Airport, Spencer Birns:

We’re delighted to welcome the opening of the Wizz Air base today, as it marks a real turning point for the airport in its post-Covid revival plans. Our customers in Wales have been asking for a more cost-effective choice for many years. What makes this launch so exciting is that Wizz Air is an ultra-low-cost airline that will help build competition and offer improved choice to people living in Wales."

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Photo: Getty Images

Wizz Air is hiring at Cardiff

The new base launch will see Wizz Air planting one of its Airbus A321neo aircraft there. With a capacity to seat approximately 239 passengers onboard and with prices starting as low as £12.99 (US$16.95) to Alicante, the low-cost carrier is anticipating extremely high demand and will need plenty of crew human resources to meet it.

Wizz Air has an open recruitment drive for both cabin and flight crew held at the Holiday Inn Cardiff City Centre on April 14th. The airline is looking to welcome both experienced and non-experienced cabin crew.

If there is something the budget carrier, along with several UK airlines over the past few months, has learned is that all the new routes planned for the summer would be redundant if there are not enough human resources to operate them.