Hungary's Wizz signs up for 12 Airbus aircraft

Wizz said it would buy V2500 engines, made by International Aero Engines to power its aircraft.

Wizz said its order, for both firm purchases and options, was worth $1.4 billion based on list prices. That price includes over $400 million for the engines, the company added.

International Aero Engines (IAE) is a joint venture of Rolls-Royce Plc , United Technologies Corp's Pratt & Whitney, Japanese Aero Engines Corp and Germany's MTU Aero Engines .

Airbus and IEA officials declined to provide exact financial details.

Wizz will finance the bulk of the purchase from bank loans, Chief Executive Jozsef Varadi said.

It most recently signed a 25 million-euro financing deal in December with a group of investors lead by Indigo Partners LLC.

Wizz, which currently flies seven aircraft out of several airports in Hungary and Poland, primarily to Western European destinations, expects to transport 2 million passengers in 2005.

The airline, which started operations in May 2004, sees its passenger traffic rising by an annual 45 percent through to 2010 and 21 percent between 2010 and 2015.

Based on those plans, Wizz expects to fly 15 million passengers in 2010 with 38 aircraft and 35 million passengers in 2015 with 100 aircraft, Varadi said.

"If those plans are correct, we will be the biggest single airline in Central Europe by 2007," Varadi said.

"We continue to think that in Europe only four or five low cost airlines will survive in the long term, and perhaps one in Central Europe," Varadi said.

"There's going to be a consolidation, airlines will disappear ... but I can't predict a time frame," Varadi added.

Varadi said Wizz had ample financing for the next two years and would consider a stock exchange listing in the medium term.

Source: Reuters