Wizz Air Ukraine has announced this week that it will use its fifth Airbus A320, due for delivery early next year, to open a third base in the country at Lviv International Airport. The low-cost carrier will station the 180-seat aircraft at the western Ukrainian facility from April 30, 2014 to introduce an additional 12 weekly flights across five new routes.

The airline made its debut in Lviv in September 2008 when it first introduced domestic links from Kiev and Simferopol. From 2009 it started to focus on international services and it currently has links from Bergamo, Dortmund and Treviso. It will now add links to Barcelona Girona, Naples, Rome, Valencia and the Georgian city of Kutaisi, the latter subject to regulatory approval. The Barcelona Girona, Naples and Valencia routes will be served on a twice weekly basis, while Kutaisi and Rome will have three flights a week.

"It is a great joy for us to announce our third Ukrainian base in Lviv. Consumers in Lviv and the region already know Wizz Air Ukraine’s low-cost services, as we have operated number of routes from Lviv International Airport,” said Akos Bus, general director, Wizz Air Ukraine. “Now even more Ukrainians can access direct regular flights to new European destinations and tourists from Western Europe can explore another beautiful Ukrainian city.”

According to the carrier, this expansion represents a fleet investment in Lviv of approximately $80 million (at list price) and will grow capacity at the airport to over 300,000 seats in 2014. “By basing our aircraft in Lviv and opening new routes, we support job creation in the region. Our commitment to Ukraine is clear - we deliver reliable air traffic operations with low fares,” said Bus.

Wizz Air Ukraine was created to launch domestic operations in Ukraine in July 2008 and currently has its main base at Kiev’s Zhuliany International Airport and from where it serves an expanding network of domestic and international destinations. The carrier confirmed ahead of Routes CIS this year that it would also base one new Airbus A320 at Donetsk’s Sergey Prokofiev International Airport from October 2013 to increase its existing Kutaisi route to five times weekly and introduce a three times weekly link to Bergamo and twice weekly flights to London Luton, Memmingen and Rome Fiumicino.