Wizz Air Holdings is planning to outfit equip its future Saudi Arabian unit with around 50 aircraft, of which half will operate to international destinations in the Middle East, while the other half will be split equally between domestic routes and other international operations, Bloomberg has reported citing investor briefings.
The LCC hopes to achieve the target fleet size by the end of the decade, although Chief Executive József Varádi stressed that the priority was finding a local partner. Wizz Air Holdings intends to enter into a joint venture with a Saudi company, which is also necessary for regulatory reasons.
"The first and foremost process is to find the right partnership with local investors, and this is what we're working on. Once this gets sorted, then we can complete the formal process of an airline application," Varádi said.
The holding has a similar partnership in the United Arab Emirates, where it entered into a JV with the sovereign wealth fund ADQ to establish Wizz Air Abu Dhabi (5W, Abu Dhabi International).
Wizz Air's Saudi ambitions are driven by the country's policy to develop its aviation market to rival carriers from smaller Gulf states and attract more foreign tourists. Riyadh is currently in the process of setting up Riyadh Air, a second flag carrier, and has touted the possibility of launching a third state-owned airline to serve the planned mega-city Neom out of Neom Bay.
