Wizz Air management downplay US flights application, rules out regular services

Wizz Air’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Ian Malin has provided some additional details about the airline’s recent filing with the US Department of Transportation (DOT) in which it requested permission to fly between the United Kingdon and points in the United States. 

Speaking during the company’s Q3 2026 earnings call, the airline executive minimized the significance of the application, stating that there are currently no plans for Wizz Air to launch transatlantic scheduled services. 

He said the filing is connected to the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will take place in the US between June 11 and July 19, 2026.  

However, Malin admitted that Wizz Air is looking at opportunities to operate charter flights to and from the US in connection with the sporting event, which is likely to attract thousands of fans across the Atlantic. 

Wizz Air is uniquely positioned to respond at relatively short notice to such peaks of demand, he added, since the A321XLR gives it this operational flexibility. 

“You sell the flight in advance; you collect the cash in advance; you price it accordingly, and the profits locked in,” Malin said. “That’s an example of us being opportunistic and looking at ways for us to diversify our revenue stream, but I would not expect there to be a material impact to the numbers based upon that.”  

He added: “The application allows for you to select a checkbox for scheduled, and that checkbox was selected, but I think somebody’s taken that far out of proportion.” 

Wizz Air’s CEO, Joszef Váradi, also referred to the US DOT application during the call, stating that this was a matter of having all the permissions in place for whenever they might be needed. Várady specifically referred to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s recent official trip to the US, which was conducted on an aircraft operated by Wizz Air UK.  

Unlike the airline’s other subsidiaries, Wizz Air UK is the most indicated within the Wizz Air group of airlines to perform these types of missions, since it is recognized by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for regulatory and oversight purposes, Várady added. 

“Hungary and Malta, the two other airlines, are under EASA governance, but EASA is not recognized by the US as a governance body because they only recognize the national authorities, not like a European authority,” he said. “That doesn’t translate into anything structural in terms of ambition to fly regular charters even, or, you know, certainly not scheduled flights.” 

Várady also highlighted the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics as another major event that may generate demand for US charter flights but insisted that any such operations would have a marginal effect on the airline’s accounts, barely moving the needle in terms of revenue or profit.

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