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WizzAir Already Experiencing Effects on Travel from Omicron

Hungary Today 2021.12.06.

Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air, like many other airlines, is already feeling the negative impact of the new virus variant “Omicron” on bookings, reports mfor.hu, citing a statement made by the company.

This article was originally published on our sister-site, Ungarn Heute. 

In response to the economic portal’s questions, Wizz Air wrote that they are generally seeing a decline in bookings due to the increasing number of covid cases worldwide and the reintroduction of restrictions in several countries. In some countries, they have already had to reduce the number of flights due to the drop in demand. Nevertheless, the company remains optimistic about the holiday season.

While Wizz Air does not fly to any African countries now red-listed due to the pandemic, they do fly to several airports in Egypt.

Egypt is one of the countries where passengers transfer to and from other African countries. However, no special measures were required on the company’s planes and no protocol has been set in place yet to treat passengers infected with the Omicron variant, the company said. “The airline cannot investigate who is infected and who is not, so they cannot deny boarding and travel to their passengers on this basis. We only check the documents required for the journey and if they are in order, we allow boarding,” Wizz Air said.

Wizz Air Makes Vaccine Mandatory for Cabin Crew
Wizz Air Makes Vaccine Mandatory for Cabin Crew

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The economic portal also contacted the Association of Hungarian Travel Agents (MUISZ). They wrote that the impact of the Omicron variant is not yet clear. The tendency for travelers to book relatively late, shortly before traveling, has been observed for months.

However, in their experience, the number of people willing to travel is higher during the Christmas and New Year period than last year. Besides the usual exotic destinations at this time of year, the United States is the most popular country among passengers, with New York being the most popular city.

MUISZ also mentions Dubai, which is already a popular destination in the winter months, but has now become even more popular because of the World Expo. Mauritius and the Seychelles have also received more bookings, but the Dominican Republic, the Maldives, and Egypt are also in demand.

Featured photo by Wizz Air


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