Wizz Air resumes flights from Abu Dhabi to Europe
October 8, 2025
Wizz Air has resumed flights from the United Arab Emirates’ capital of Abu Dhabi just weeks after shutting down its subsidiary in the city.
Abu Dhabi is back on the Wizz Air map
Wizz Air will resume flights from Abu Dhabi to six destinations in Europe. Its flights from Poland’s Katowice and Krakow are set to resume on 10th October. Flights from Romania’s Bucharest and Hungary’s Budapest are also available in October.
Meanwhile, its flights to Larnaca in Cyprus start on 15th November, and to Sofia in Bulgaria are to start on 17th November.
Gulf News noted that while Wizz Air officially closed its Abu Dhabi base on 1st September, Abu Dhabi continued to receive Wizz Air flights from other subsidiaries. Wizz Air may have terminated its joint venture with the Gulf State, but it still intends to service the hub from its other bases in Europe.
A spokesperson said, “Wizz Abu Dhabi (the JV Airline) has closed, so there is no longer a base at AUH. However, this does not impact inbound flights from other Wizz bases.”
Wizz Air’s previous decision to withdraw from Abu Dhabi
Wizz Air is an ultra-low-cost airline based in Hungary that includes the subsidiaries Wizz Air Hungary, Wizz Air Malta, and Wizz Air UK. Until 1 September 2025, the group also included Wizz Air Abu Dhabi at Abu Dhabi’s Zayed International Airport. That subsidiary was formed in 2019 as a joint venture with Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund ADQ.
In July 2025, Wizz Air stated it would end all Abu Dhabi operations and refocus on its core European market. The airline cited several reasons for the decision, including regulatory barriers, geopolitical instability that led to repeated airspace closures, and extreme heat adversely affecting its engine efficiency.
The Telegraph quoted Wizz Air CEO, Jozsef Varadi, as saying a major reason for the decision was Abu Dhabi authorities going back on previous agreements. It had planned to fly and had been given access rights to routes to India and Pakistan. This would have enabled the airline to truly expand beyond the greater Europe/Middle Eastern region.
Wizz Air Abu Dhabi has landed in Tel Aviv! This historic moment means the start of new low-fare travel opportunities between the United Arab Emirates and Israel. Use that opportunity and book flights 👉 https://t.co/AeMNWOslh5 pic.twitter.com/8CVoCLx1dY
— Wizz Air (@wizzair) April 19, 2021
Instead, rights were handed over the Abu Dhabi’s flag carrier, Etihad. Etihad later countered, saying there was no favouritism by Abu Dhabi authorities.
Separately, Wizz Air has been pushing for a base in Israel’s Tel Aviv, something that has met resistance from Israel’s local EL AL airline.
One of Europe’s leading low-cost airlines
According to Planespotters.net, the Wizz Air group has 242 aircraft in inventory, all of which are Airbus A320 family narrowbody aircraft. It has almost 300 more aircraft on order. The airline has been troubled by Pratt & Whitney’s GTF engines, which have led to less time on the wing and groundings.
Wizz Air has a market capitalisation of around $1.6 billion according to CompaniesMarketCap.com. That places it well behind its top European low-cost rivals, easyJet ($4.7 billion) and Ryanair ($32.0 billion). Ryanair is the world’s second most valuable airline (after Delta) as of the time of writing.
A Wizz Air A321 is taking the scenic route to the Maldives as they are missing ETOPS certification.
— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) March 4, 2023
5W7105 from Abu Dhabi to Male https://t.co/LRlOyNWhg8 pic.twitter.com/OwjBQKmzoO
Wizz Air currently operates flights across Europe and to Europe’s near abroad, including parts of the Middle East, Morocco, and the Caucasus. Notably, it doesn’t operate flights to Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine, where airspace is closed due to war and/or sanctions.
