Dubai: Hungarian carrier Wizz Air is on track to launch operations from Dubai’s newest airport this month despite questions surrounding fellow launch carrier nasair.

György Abrán, chief commercial officer at Wizz Air said there had been “no changes on our side” and that everything “will be going ahead as planned” for its flights to start from Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central (DWC) on October 27.

Earlier this week Saudi Arabia’s low-cost carrier nasair had said it was currently “evaluating the financial feasibility of operations from DWC”. Nasair was unable to indicate when it would commence flights from the airport despite being unveiled alongside Wizz Air as launch carriers earlier this year.

When Wizz Air begins operations, it will be the first and only European low-cost carrier operating in the UAE. Abrán said he believed it was the right time to enter the market. “We think it’s a great opportunity to apply our business model and in terms of infrastructure and facility; it [Al Maktoum International] will be as good as any other airport,” he said.

Business model

Wizz Air will be the only airline flying from DWC on October 27; earlier this week Kuwait’s low-cost carrier Jazeera Airways announced they would begin twice weekly flights from October 31.

Abrán, who would not comment on the deal behind bringing Wizz to Dubai, said it was an obvious win-win situation. Al Maktoum International is in line with Wizz Air’s business model of flying into non-primary and less congested airports, he said.

Asked if it was a right move to compete with Dubai’s own popular low-cost carrier flydubai on flights to Bucharest and Kiev, Abrán said Wizz Air was not afraid of competition. “We are competing across our network with a number of carriers… competition is not something new to us,” he said.

The airline will also fly to Budapest and Sofia. Abrán said that the airline was bringing something new to the Dubai market with low fares and access to certain parts of Europe.

Under current visa rules, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Romanian and Ukrainian citizens need to obtain a visa before flying to the UAE. Emiratis also need a visa before travelling to these countries.

Abrán said the airline had launched an online visa application for citizens of these European countries travelling to the UAE. However, Emiratis still need to visit the relevant embassy. He said he was hopeful that visa restrictions would “smoothen”.

Foresight

“It would have some economic benefits for these countries to have more travellers from the Middle East,” Abrán said on visa restrictions placed on Emiratis.

John Strickland, Director at UK-based aviation firm JLS Consulting, said the opening of the new airport was a sign of foresight for growth.

He said that Wizz Air would be entering the UAE where “extremely good” low-cost Gulf carriers, flydubai and Air Arabia, were already established. However, these airlines predominantly focus on regional travel.

Deepak Jain, head of strategic consulting for the Mena region at Jones Lang LaSalle said the new extension of Terminal 1 and improvements to Terminal 2 means there won’t be capacity constraints in the near future for Dubai International Airport. “In the long term, the new airport will gradually take over and allow for the continuing growth in tourist arrivals to the city as well as maintaining Dubai’s regional leadership as a transit hub,” he said.