Israel Puts Wizz Air Hub on Hold as Carrier Delays Its Return

Israel's Ministry of Transport announced today (Wednesday) that it is freezing the project to establish an operational center for the airline "Wizz Air" in Israel, following the low-cost giant's continued failure to resume flights to and from Israel.

The decision comes after a series of postponements by the Hungarian company, which did not operate flights to Israel during the war with Iran. Initially, "Wizz Air" announced it would resume service at the end of April, but later pushed its return to early May. Despite the prolonged suspension of its Israel routes, during March the company took part in efforts to bring Israelis home from abroad and operated flights to Sharm el-Sheikh from several European destinations.

Last November, Transport Minister Miri Regev met with the company's CEO, Jozsef Varadi, as part of discussions to establish a "Wizz Air" base of operations at Ben Gurion Airport. The base was intended to enable the company to operate direct flights from Israel with greater frequency. Regev previously addressed the initiative and said she has "full backing from the prime minister to advance this issue; I do not intend to blink for a moment; we all want airfare prices to come down."

Establishing the base was expected to allow the company to keep aircraft in Israel overnight—a move that would increase the scope of air operations and position Israel as a central origin and destination in the company's route network. In return, Israel required "Wizz Air" to meet several conditions, including operating domestic flights to Eilat, maintaining international routes from the southern city, and continuing operations even during periods of fighting.