Wizz Air opens its first UK base at Luton airport today with the introduction of three new routes.
The eastern and central European budget carrier will base a new Airbus A320 at the airport, increasing its network from Luton to 42 routes.
A new twice-weekly service to Kutaisi in Georgia started on Sunday followed by flights to Tel Aviv four times a week and Prishtina in Kosovo twice a week from Saturday.
Frequencies on some routes to Romania will also increase with the arrival of the new aircraft.
The new base at Luton – home of UK rival EasyJet – has created 36 jobs.
Wizz Air started flying from the Bedfordshire airport in 2004 and last year carried more than five million passengers on its Luton flights.
The airline will offer 6.3 million seats on Luton routes this year, representing 13% growth year-on-year.
Wizz Air chief corporate officer Owain Jones said: “We are proud to celebrate the opening of the first Wizz base in the UK at London Luton airport.
“Wizz Air’s very first flight in 2004 was to London Luton and, since then, we have carried 30 million passengers on our low fare routes from the airport, stimulating the local tourism and aviation industries while strengthening business partnerships between the UK and central and eastern Europe.
“Our new base operations at London Luton airport will create a number of local jobs with Wizz and the new destinations added to the network mean even greater choice for UK passengers with 42 popular routes to 18 countries.”