Air France (AF, Paris CDG) and partner KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL, Amsterdam Schiphol) are reportedly in "advanced talks" with Wizz Air (W6, Budapest) concerning their possible acquisition of the Hungarian LCC. Quoting sources close to the talks, Dutch aviation news portal, luchtvaartnieuws.nl, says the acquisition of Wizz Air would provide the Franco-Dutch carrier's low-cost subsidiaries, Transavia Airlines (HV, Amsterdam Schiphol) and Transavia France (TO, Paris Orly), with a much broader European footprint thereby allowing it to better compete with the likes of Ryanair (FR, Dublin International), Vueling Airlines (VY, Barcelona El Prat) and easyJet (London Luton).
All parties concerned have denied the report stating "no such discussions are currently underway.”
For its part, Wizz Air, along with its Wizz Air Ukraine (Kyiv Igor Sikorsky) subsidiary, operates fifty A320s on flights to 96 destinations throughout Europe with a particularly strong market presence in Central and Eastern Europe. Headquartered in Hungary, the carrier counts American private equity firm, Indigo Partners of Frontier Airlines (F9, Denver International) fame, among its larger shareholders.
European legacy carriers have struggled to stem the LCC onslaught on both the domestic and regional European operational front. Lufthansa (LH, Frankfurt International) CEO Carsten Spohr this week outlined his airline's own plans to combat the threat which will see it relaunching its Eurowings (EW, Düsseldorf) subsidiary as a regional (as opposed to German-based) LCC in spring next year.
