Wizz Air is to follow budget airline rivals by introducing allocated seating on flights.
Free allocated seating will become part of the booking process from April 8 for selected routes from May 4 and across the network from May 19.
Fees of between €1 and €23 will apply for selected front row, extra legroom and other seats such as those in the front cabin. However, the carrier is cutting its priority boarding fee to €2.
Free priority boarding and seat selection will continue to be available to Wizz Premium and Privilege Pass members.
Allocated seating will be piloted on the Katowice-London, Budapest-Barcelona and Bucharest-Dortmund routes before being expanded across the full network of 360 routes from 110 airports across 37 countries.
The airline says it will allocate neighbouring seats to passengers traveling together on the same booking where possible.
Customers can change their free seat allocation for a fee any time up until three hours before departure.
“Preferred seats, such as front row seats for quick disembarking or seats with extra legroom, can be reserved for a higher fee upon availability on a first come first served basis,” the airline said.
Chief commercial officer György Abrán said: “I am convinced that airlines’ trend to re-introduce seat allocation accurately reflects what consumers now value most when travelling: an affordable airfare and a comfortable and hassle-free experience.
“We have 180 seats on each of our 55 A320 aircraft and from November we will have 230 seats on our new A321 aircraft.
“Our new seat allocation comes as part of a number of planned experience upgrades in 2015 which we will announce very soon.”