Central and Eastern European low-cost carrier Wizz Air is to station a fifth Airbus A320 at its base in the Polish city of Gdansk to expand its summer offering from the city’s Lech Walesa Airport. The new aircraft will support the previously announced launch of a new link between Gdansk and Malta that will commence in June 2014 and will support frequency increases on six existing routes.

With this expansion Wizz Air will grow its Polish fleet to 16 Airbus A320 aircraft in the summer peak of 2014: five based aircraft in Gdansk and Katowice, four in Warsaw Chopin Airport and one aircraft in Poznan and Wroclaw. The new Gdansk – Malta route will launch on June 20, 2014 and will be operated on a twice weekly basis. The frequency growth will see additional flights from the Polish city to London Luton (from 4 to 18 weekly), Stockholm Skavsta (from nine to eleven weekly), Oslo Torp (from five to seven weekly), Bergen (from six to seven weekly), Alesund (from four to five weekly) and Cologne (from two to three weekly), also from June this year.

“We are thrilled about continuing our growth in the country and offering very low fares and excellent services to our ever expanding customer base of Polish passengers and their visitors. Our capacity increase will create a number of new jobs at Wizz Air as well as in associated services and industries in the Pomeranian region," - said József Váradi, chief executive officer, Wizz Air.

According to Váradi, "Poland is the homeland of Wizz Air”, as it is where the airline first took off ten years ago in May 2004: it is the second largest international operator from the country. As our analysis below illustrates after overtaking national carrier LOT Polish Airlines as the country’s largest international carrier by seat capacity in 2009, it subsequently slipped behind low-cost rival Ryanair in 2012 after the Irish carrier embarked on a major expansion in Poland, including the launch of domestic air services within the country.