Low-cost Wizz Air commits to open Israel hub by spring 2026 in bid to cut high fares

Hungarian low-cost carrier Wizz Air announced on Thursday that it is “committed” to setting up an operational aviation base in Israel as early as March or April in a move that could boost competition and bring down sky-high fares for travelers.

“We are fully committed to put the idea of a Wizz base into effect here in Israel,” said Wizz Air CEO József Váradi during a visit to Israel. “We want to be seen as a good corporate citizen embedded in Israeli society.”

Váradi made the statement after meeting with Transportation Minister Miri Regev and ministry officials. However, there are regulatory and other issues that are still under discussion, while Israeli airlines have been fiercely pushing against the plan.

“We had a great meeting with tremendous progress made in understanding the opportunity from all angles, understanding what the needs are in the country, understanding what we can do in terms of operations and putting the issues on the table to seek ways of resolving them,” Váradi told The Times of Israel after the meeting. “Some of the challenges being technical, business or regulatory type of issues.”

“But there is a real commitment at both sides to try to make things work,” added Váradi.

In a joint statement following the meeting, Regev and Váradi said the two agreed to work with their respective teams on outstanding issues over the next two months to try to conclude the discussions by the end of January.

“We are fully committed to make further progress with the objective of starting to put that idea [of a hub in Israel] into actual reality as soon as we can and hopefully that will be in March or April,” said Váradi.

Váradi said that establishing a Wizz Air hub in Israel marks a “huge investment for the benefit of consumers who will benefit from lowered cost of travel.”

“This is a billion-dollar investment from us, and we would be bringing aircraft technology efficiency to the country, but most importantly, we would be bringing in a lot more low fares to the local market,” said Váradi. “We think we could double our route network.”

“Right now we have 21 routes flown from Israel [to destinations across Europe] and we would be looking at a network of about 50 routes over the course of the next few years,” he estimated.

Regev has been advancing talks with Wizz Air in recent months to establish an operational aviation base in Israel. The move would allow the low-cost carrier to park planes in Israel and add more flights to more destinations, said Regev, thereby increasing scarce seat supply, which in turn is expected to lead to lower fares.

Váradi shared with The Times of Israel that the low-cost airline will be looking over the course of the next three years to create an “additional 4 million seat capacity beyond the program we have in place right now.”

“Wizz Air’s decision to open a base in Israel marks a breakthrough that will undoubtedly lead to a reduction in flight prices in the Israel market,” said Eshet Tours vice president Shirley Cohen Orkaby. “The extent of the price drop depends on several factors: how many aircraft Wizz will station in Israel; whether the base will be at Ben Gurion Airport — which would result in a more significant reduction — or at Eilat’s Ramon Airport; and whether Wizz Air will be granted the ‘seventh freedom of the air’ to fly from Israel to non-EU countries.”

“However, Wizz Air’s activity is not expected to solve the issue of high ticket prices to the East, as the airline focuses on short-haul flights,” Cohen Orkaby added.

If and when the plan goes ahead, Wizz Air would compete with local carriers for their preferred slots for takeoffs and landings on major European routes.

Israel’s flag carrier, El Al, and smaller Israeli rivals Arkia and Israir have been arguing that allowing Wizz Air to open an operational base in the country would significantly harm local airlines and undermine national resilience, especially during emergency war periods.

Israeli airlines, including El Al, have been accused of price gouging and profiteering and are facing class-action suits, after reporting record profits during the the past two years of war, while ticket prices have gone through the roof.

“I appreciate that Israeli airlines continued to operate and fly in emergency war periods but it is not a secret that they took advantage of the supply shortage [as foreign airlines stopped operations] to extort prices in most difficult times, and this is an unacceptable reality,” said Regev. “We are now working on all fronts to lower the cost of living for consumers.”

While most major foreign airlines have resumed their flights to and from Israel in recent weeks after repeatedly canceling and reinstating their flights during the two-year war with the Hamas terror group in Gaza, many low-cost airlines have decided to continue to stay away.

At the end of September, Irish low-cost airline Ryanair abandoned plans to resume operations to and from Israel this winter, and will not restart services until further notice after repeatedly extending the suspension of flight services to the country.

Ryanair Group chief executive Michael O’Leary previously said the low-cost carrier may not return to Israel even when violence related to the Gaza war recedes.

Over the summer, British low-cost carrier easyJet announced that it would extend the suspension of all routes to and from Tel Aviv through March 28, 2026.