Wizz Air to resume flights from Poland's Modlin Airport
Wizz Air said on Monday it was closing down its Abu Dhabi operation, giving it the ability to relocate capacity throughout Europe.
The airline had shifted its operations to Warsaw's Chopin Airport in 2012 after a runway failure at Modlin.
"After successful negotiation and discussion and agreement with the management of Modlin Airport, we are going to deploy two new Airbus neo planes to Modlin airport starting in December," Tischner said at a conference in Warsaw.
The new routes will serve eight countries and connect Modlin with Athens, Sardinia's Alghero, Barcelona, Bergamo, Bergen, Brindisi, Chisinau, Malta, Palermo, Paphos and Sofia.
Last week Ryanair (RYA.I), opens new tab announced plans to treble the number of passengers it serves at Modlin airport to more than 5 million a year by 2030.
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Boeing and Airbus ground green plane projects
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In February, Airbus said it would 'pause' development of the ZEROe hydrogen plane, an aircraft with no carbon emissions that it had planned to have in service by 2035. The two manufacturers enjoy a near-duopoly in the airliner market, and delays to their flagship green programmes have sounded an alarm on airlines' plans to get to net zero — adding no additional carbon to the atmosphere — by 2050. 'The airline industry does in my view have a serious intent to meet net-zero targets but faces increased challenges in doing so', John Strickland, an independent aviation consultant, said. 'Alternative technologies are being pushed further out, which means an increased emphasis on the use of sustainable aviation fuel, which is still in limited supply.' The delays may also create another obstacle to the planned expansion of Heathrow. The airport said on August 1 that it would 'only deliver expansion in a way that is consistent with net zero 2050'. 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As other energy-intensive industries find ways to cut their carbon emissions — electricity replacing blast furnaces in steel, new technology for making cement, and electric vehicles for land transport — aviation's share of total CO₂ could, by some estimates, rise to 20 per cent by 2050. Carbon-cutting technology for aviation is proving slow to arrive. Most experts think battery-power will be limited to small commuter aircraft, but there are high hopes for hydrogen. Airbus had invested significantly, including a plan to test a hydrogen fuel-cell engine on a modified A380 superjumbo. But it paused work in February, saying progress on 'key enablers', in particular the production of large amounts of hydrogen from renewable energy, was 'slower than anticipated'. Boeing has been less interested in hydrogen, but said the X-66A could lead to a 10 per cent reduction in emissions. 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