Hungary airline hit by Airbus A320 recalls

Hungary’s Wizz Air will be forced to ground 20% of its fleet for several months due to the recall of its many Airbus A320s with contaminated engines.

The Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engines of over 3,000 Airbus SE A320s have been contaminated by metal powder, causing engine failures. The company has pledged to up its production and repair capacity to reduce the delay times. 

Due to repair backlogs, the Hungarian commercial airline’s number of grounded planes will peak in 6-12 months, Wizz Air CEO Jozsef Varadi said Thursday. With a 300-day waiting list, checks will continue into the coming years. 

Summer levels to remain flat

The Wizz fleet will meet planned schedules for the summer season, but – despite ongoing attempts to buy new planes – the airline will not be able to add services.

Varadi said the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel have hit Wizz’s bottom line, but the company remains profitable and would like to expand by buying airport slots. 

“If airlines fail or they have to scale down, we would be there to backfill that hole and capacity,” he said.

On these “black swan” events, Varadi said his airline has been hit relatively hard, but added that “I’m not sure what I could have done differently. We are back into profitability. I think we are very robust and solid in terms of operating performance, but we just need to go through the cycle,” Varadi said.