New budget airline from March

Headquartered in Shannon, Ireland, EUjet Ops Ltd. was founded in May 2003. The chief executive of the company is P.J. McGoldrick, former CEO of low-cost airline Ryanair.
According to unconfirmed BBJ information, EUjet is partly owned by debis AirFinance, a leading international aircraft leasing and financing provider. The latter also rents out the aircraft of Hungarian carrier Wizz Air.

Natasa Kázmér, director of communications at Wizz Air, said the entry of the new budget airline is not surprising.

“Britons have a deep culture of travel, and, since they live on an island, most of the time they travel they fly. The concentration of budget airlines is higher there than anywhere else in Europe,” Kázmér said.

“Though airlines that are present in Hungary have already established numerous connections between Budapest and the London area, this doesn’t constitute an oversupply on the market. Now, Hungarians travel way less than people in Western Europe, but demand will increase. And considering the British penchant for traveling, EUjet might simply fill most of its flights from the [British] market.”

György Petõ, regional manager of easyJet, voiced a similar view.

“EUjet’s entry comes as no surprise,” he said. “The Central-East European market has been constantly growing. And while the growth cannot be sustained for ever, Hungary is now a very popular, very ‘hot’ destination, especially for Britons, who have a well-developed air traffic market.”

Petõ recalled that, according to figures of Ferihegy operator Budapest Airport Rt, the number of passengers at Ferihegy rose by 28.2% year-on-year between January and October 2004. He said most of this growth was enjoyed by budget airlines.

However, Petõ also opined that the local budget airline market has already grown bigger than is sustainable in the long run.

“But it is hard to tell when and how the regional market will be rearranged,” he added. “If, for instance, a national carrier goes bust – and such a thing is well conceivable – that would create a huge opportunity for budget airlines.”

Petõ added that easyJet fills the majority of its London flights with British customers, although adding that the share of tickets purchased by Hungarians is growing.

“This is no surprise, either. The British market is way bigger and more developed than the Hungarian one,” he explained.
EUjet, from airfields in Manston and Shannon, serves 28 European destinations, including Budapest. Other destinations from Manston include Barcelona, Nice and Prague, and Spain’s Costa del Sol and the Balearic Isles from Shannon.

As of press time, EUjet disclosed no further information on its planned Budapest flights.

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