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00:05Ben ritrovati in questo appuntamento con SEO Talk, oggi parliamo di trasporto aereo,
00:10lo facciamo in una fase in cui ci sono nuovi rischi a livello geopolitico, si riaccende
00:16la tensione tra Stati Uniti e Iran, chiaramente tutto questo impatta sul comparto e poi lo
00:23facciamo anche in una fase in cui si è riaccesso il cosiddetto risico dei cieli, l'M&A che
00:27coinvolge alcune compagnie aeree tra cui EasyJet, ma oggi parliamo con il CEO di Wizz Air, Joseph
00:35Varady.
00:36Thank you.
00:37Good morning.
00:39Good morning.
00:39Thank you for inviting me.
00:41Allora partiamo dagli ultimi conti della compagnia che vedono un calo dell'utile netto intorno
00:47ai 2 milioni nell'anno fiscale chiuso lo scorso 31 marzo, a pesare la guerra in Iran, l'incertezza
00:55geopolitica, in questi giorni tra l'altro stiamo vedendo nuove tensioni, ci può aiutare
01:00a fare una previsione da qui a fine anno?
01:02Yes, I mean, obviously the world is in turbulence at the moment, but I would also know that we
01:08are an industry, aviation and especially airlines, that have always been exposed to external
01:15matters, whether that's geopolitics, natural disasters or macroeconomics. So industry kind
01:23of keeps learning how to deal with this situation. So the Iran war is not an exception to that.
01:30Now what we are seeing is that, obviously, there is an impact on traffic to the Middle East,
01:35there is an impact on fuel price, so input costs are rising. Right now in Europe, I think
01:41everyone is pushing capacity and trying to protect cash flow going through the summer,
01:46and profitability of the industry has come down. But as of the winter period, you will see many
01:52airlines increasing fares and charges. I think we said it's well positioned to manage this
01:57transition, and be resilient under the circumstances. We are very well hedged on fuel, we have 75% of
02:06our fuel requirements for the next five months hedge. We fly the youngest fleet of aircraft burning the
02:13least fuel relative to other airlines flying other aircraft. And we have over 2 billion euros of cash on hand.
02:21And then, you know, under the circumstances, this is what really matters, that you are cash liquid and you can
02:28process these
02:29shoes that you are encountering. So we are really good to actually take advantage of the situation and we
02:34think that some airlines will struggle and we are there to backfill the holes.
02:38Non c'è un rischio concreto sul carburante?
02:42Not what we are seeing. It's been topical all over the place that maybe fuel supply is going to be
02:50strained, but it is not.
02:52I see the world has figured out how to alternate supply from the Strait of Hormuz.
02:57So it doesn't work like, you know, our fuel is sitting in the Strait of Hormuz waiting for the lease.
03:03There are lots of alternative supply channels set up in the meantime.
03:08Europe is buying a lot of fuel from the United States directly and we have not experienced any constraints, any
03:17issues whatsoever when it comes to fuel supply.
03:20And we have a fairly good visibility because we are kind of tracking it for the next two months on
03:24a loading basis and we are not seeing anything coming.
03:27So we think we are just fine in terms of fuel supply.
03:30So everyone should be very relaxed, not concerned about this and they should just book and travel.
03:35Mentre per quanto riguarda un rischio del rialzo dei prezzi per i consumatori?
03:41That's a very interesting question because intuitively you would think that because of rising fuel costs, everyone is pricing up
03:48and tickets are posting more.
03:50But that's actually not the case.
03:52In Europe, prices are holding.
03:55So this summer is not more expensive than last summer.
03:57As a matter of fact, because we are growing a lot and in order to stimulate that growth and stimulate
04:02the market, we are actually cutting fares.
04:04So our fares have calmed down this summer relative to last year.
04:10So I think it's a very good pricing environment for the customer to travel and travel more because this is
04:16really cheap traveling in Europe.
04:19It will change us in winter because you will see the industry coming under more pressure and fares will start
04:26creeping up.
04:27But at this point in time, going through the summer, prices are very benign, very favorable to the consumer.
04:34Ecco, le volevo chiedere anche un po' come stanno cambiando le scelte, le abitudini dei viaggiatori.
04:41I mean, I think we see a lot more travel domestically and we see a lot more travel in Europe.
04:46I mean, that's fairly obvious.
04:48You know, a lot of people who used to fly to the Middle East, obviously they don't go there because
04:55of the concerns regarding the war.
04:58So we are seeing a lot of reshuffering of fuel patterns, people spending vacations in Europe and in the domestic
05:06markets as opposed to going long-haul.
05:09Asia is also suffering with that regard.
05:12As you know, a lot of the connected traffic to Asia went through the Middle East.
05:16It has been redirected.
05:18So all in, in terms of travel demand, I think Europe has become stronger as a result of the conflict
05:24in the Middle East.
05:25Wizz Air sta, come dire, riducendo la strategia sul lungo raggio, ha anche abbandonato gli ordini degli A321XLR.
05:35Qual è adesso la vostra nuova strategia?
05:38I mean, we have been going back and forth on the A321XLR.
05:43I think we landed on the platform that the A321XLR is really an operational contingency for the normal Airbus A321
05:52fleet.
05:53The A321XLR has longer range.
05:56And, you know, especially if you just think about this, that, you know, there could be a conflict happening somewhere.
06:02There could be a weather situation.
06:04There could be an airport closure where you have to detour and you have to lengthen the flight.
06:09And the A321XLR would do it without stopping the plane for fuel.
06:14So really this is what we are looking at, to use the XLR as an operational contingency of the core
06:19fleet, the A321XLR, as opposed to doing anything else.
06:22E' di pochi giorni fa la notizia di un disastro aereo sfiorato su una tratta Atene-Londra per due secondi.
06:31Non c'è stato un disastro, parliamo di un volo di un anno fa.
06:37Lei teme che questa notizia possa in qualche modo impattare sulla credibilità?
06:42La sicurezza è un aspetto fondamentale, primario per le compagnie aeree.
06:46Look, I mean, as far as our own safety is concerned, we are totally spotless and we have been recognized
06:53as one of the safest satellites in the world.
06:55So we are not concerned about our own safety.
06:57But clearly, this example shows that when you wet lease, so you actually involve another operator into your business, the
07:05risk profile of such platform is different.
07:09And as a learning, we basically decided that we are going to step away from wet lease.
07:15We are not going to wet lease.
07:17We will rather create more contingencies in-house within the Vizal network because we can control our flying standards, our
07:24safety standards, without any additional exposure.
07:29So that's a learning exercise.
07:31I mean, you know, nothing happened, luckily.
07:34But clearly, we are not fully able to observe safety of other operators.
07:41And I would put it as a bigger issue, to be honest, a lot beyond Vizal, because a lot of
07:46airlines in Europe operate on the basis of at least capacity operated by other airlines.
07:52And those airlines don't have full control over that capacity and how safety is performed.
07:59We are validating all these carriers and we have been examining their standards, but you still see that still issues
08:08can happen.
08:10So all in, we are not going to do many more wet lease as a result of this.
08:15E' una fase molto attiva per l'M&A nel trasporto aereo.
08:21Varadi, tutti vogliono i C-Jet.
08:24C'è qualcuno che vuole Wizz Air o Wizz Air vuole qualcuno?
08:29I don't think we want anyone.
08:31I don't know who wants us, but certainly we don't want anyone.
08:34We have a shareholding structure that is very protective against M&A kind of activities.
08:44We have been growing this business on an organic basis.
08:47This year, in 2026, we are going to carry over 86 million passengers.
08:53I mean, that makes us the third largest airline brand in Europe in terms of carried passengers.
09:01Organic growth has been the way of developing the business and we remain the way of developing the business.
09:07So we are not interested in either side of the equation.
09:10We are focused on growing our business organically.
09:13Thank you.
09:14Thank you, Joseph Varadi.
09:16Thank you.
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