“Wizz Air CEO: Two-Year Turnaround? Try Immediate Exit.”

 

The CEO of Wizz Air has declared he needs two years to orchestrate a turnaround. Yet the airline’s failings go far deeper and much further back. Here’s a breakdown of the real roots—and why delay only prolongs the damage.

Wizz Air’s CEO has just told Bloomberg he’s giving himself two years to deliver a turnaround. Two years? That’s a lifetime in airline terms. The problems facing Wizz didn’t appear overnight — and neither did the causes. The causes are systemic and can be attributed to the management rather than external factors.

Yes, the Pratt & Whitney GTF engine issues have hurt operational performance across the industry. But blaming them as the primary reason for Wizz’s woes is like blaming the weather for a badly planned route network. The real, deeper issues lie elsewhere:

• Disastrous Joint Ventures that drained resources and distracted focus.

• Rock-bottom reliability, alienating customers and damaging the brand.

• An insular, top-down management style where decisions bottleneck at the CEO’s desk.

• Years of poor strategic choices dating well before the current engine problems.

Let's look at some of the critical issues. 

Poor Fleet Strategy & Limited Scale

Source: https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/aviation-news/airline-news/deep-dive-wizz-air/ 

Was the decision to go for the larger aircraft the right one?

There is a consistent story that demonstrates the use of the larger aircraft as airlines go to more margin routes is poor. Spirit in the USA is the classic example and Frontier is also struggling. The issue is not the cost. It is the filling of the plane. Contrast this with network carriers such as Delta and British Airways. Despite being the largest European operator of the Airbus A321neo, Wizz has only just received its first A321‑XLR in May 2025—a model crucial for long-range, high‑density. That should have happened years ago. But as we have seen it is the wrong aircraft for the "new" version of WizzAir. https://www.ft.com/content/16262bcc-2688-468e-87e2-a10ca2ff7be7 

Sending back reliable A320CEOs in many cases too early replaced a reliable smaller aircraft with a larger unreliable ship. While not unique, this has come back to bite WizzAir.

Weak Hub Moats

• Wizz’s key bases, such as Luton, lack protective advantages—making them easy prey to other low-cost carriers. With no meaningful edge or stickiness, Wizz is perpetually in a price war rather than building loyalty or defensible market share. Like Ryanair who has the highest moat enabled airports of any airline

A Gulf Venture That Collapsed

• The Abu Dhabi JV is a textbook of strategic miscalculation. Wizz has now abandoned all operations there effective September 1, 2025, citing engine problems in hot climates, regulatory roadblocks, geopolitical instability, and lack of support vis-à-vis Etihad. 

• Far from being a launchpad into the dynamic Middle East and South Asia markets, it became a liability, draining resources and focus.

• 4 Airlines is a management challenge. 

Internal Weaknesses & Industry Exposure

• Wizz was overly dependent on Pratt & Whitney GTF engines, which underperformed in harsh conditions. This triggered mass groundings—damaging reliability and reputation. 

• The CEO’s reductive blame on engine issues diverts attention from the real issue: a management structure that is insular, top-down, and slow to course-correct.

Competing Against the Wrong Rivals

• Unlike Ryanair, which has built robust competitive moats across Western Europe, Wizz remains exposed—dropping into direct competition with every other LCC rather than leading from strength.

• With its biggest hub in Luton is is directly competing with both Easyjet and Ryanair not to mention other smaller LCCs. 

If the company is serious about transformation, the airline needs new leadership immediately, not in 24 months. Because in aviation, time is operating leverage—and delay is just decline. A 2 year time line is 2 years too late. The change is needed now. The board needs to act immediately and bring in a full transformation team. Shrinking the airline will be very tough. 

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