Impactul scumpirii petrolului asupra biletelor de avion. Interviu cu József Váradi, CEO Wizz Air

Well, I would say that of course we live on the same planet as anyone else. But we are in a good position because we have over 80% of our fuel requirement hedged over the next 6 months. So effectively whatever happens in the world, it doesn't really impact on us short term. Now of course over time if it keeps dragging for a long period, then we would have more impact. But as far as the short term is concerned, we are very well protected as we are hedged both on fuel and foreign exchange. So our business short term next 6 months is basically derisked from geopolitical events and kind of subsequent issues falling out of that.

Well, I mean I think we need to look at it in perspective. As I said, we are very well hedged so we are not much exposed to a spiking cost out there on fuel. So we think that you know, we can be pretty much in the same position or very close to it going through the summer. So people should not be expecting significant price increases from Wizz Air. Some other airlines may act differently and they may have to charge more because they are not well protected by hedges as we are. But I would also say that I think we should have to see how long this conflict is going to drag and when it ends because as in the moment it ends, it will moderate the oil price, it will moderate the fuel price environment. It will have some time lag, but you know, if you think that this conflict is over in the next couple of months, I would guess that you know, within the time frame of 4 to 6 months, we will be pretty much back to where we were in terms of oil price and corresponding fuel price for aviation. So I don't think that I would overreact to this situation. So we will see what the long term means. But again, I think for the next 6 months we are pretty well covered. We are in a good position and I would not expect this conflict to go beyond 6 months.

Yeah, I think that there will be more pressure on costs in the industry for sure due to reasons you just listed. But at the same time, I also think that you know, we are doing something about that. We are effectively doing two things. We are renewing technology. We have been transforming our entire operating platform, our entire fleet into a new technology that is a lot more economical to operate and it is a lot more sustainability friendly environmental friendly than previous technology. We are burning 17% less fuel with the technology that we are adapting to. And that kind of a transition is at around 80% completion rate as we speak and will be 100% in 2 years from now. So that's a significant step change and it is reducing cost of operations quite significantly. Secondly, we are also upgauging our aircraft. So we are flying bigger aircraft 239 seater aircraft versus the previous aircraft of 180 seats. That also enables us to deliver better economic performance because by engineering design a bigger aircraft delivers lower unit cost, lower seat cost than smaller aircraft. So those two things combined effectively enable us to better withstand to make sure that we are resilient to cost creep and cost pressure as well because those two changes are basically making sure that we are able to hold the lines and we are able to deliver operations without really increasing cost of that. If I look at the last two to three years, effectively our unit cost has not been creeping. Our unit cost has been offset by these structural initiatives, these structural investments notwithstanding all the inflationary pressure on the business.