Wizz Air will reduce its flight schedule at Cardiff airport over the winter months, saying it has to “adapt to the challenging macro-economic environment”.
From September 19, nine routes will be suspended: Alicante, Corfu, Heraklion, Faro, Larnaca, Lanzarote, Palma de Mallorca, Sharm el-Sheikh and Tenerife.
The airline will continue to operate from Cardiff, with new winter season flights launching on October 30 to Milan and Bucharest.
It said in a statement: “As a consequence of suspending base operations during the winter months, all Cardiff based employees will be offered redeployment opportunities at other UK airports over the winter.”
The statement said: “Although this has been an incredibly difficult decision for the airline, it has been made with as much advance notice as possible to minimise any last-minute cancellations and maximise rebooking options for customers.”
Passengers with bookings affected by this change will be informed via email and can opt for either a 120% refund of the original fare in airline credit, a 100% cash refund, or comparable flights for next summer from Cardiff or this year through Gatwick or Luton.
It added: “Wizz Air plans to increase its operations from Cardiff next spring and, as part of its long-term commitment to the airport, has already launched its summer 2023 flight schedule from Cardiff.”
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Marion Geoffroy, Wizz Air UK managing director, said: “We are very disappointed to have to suspend several routes from Cardiff Airport for the winter season.
“Though these routes have proved popular through the summer season, it would not be commercially viable to continue to operate them through this coming winter due to the challenging macro-economic environment. This leaves us with no option but to pause these routes until next spring.
“We are deeply sorry for the inconvenience this will cause customers who already booked flights with us. We are in touch with all affected customers to explain their options.
“We continue to value our close working relationship with Cardiff airport and plan to resume base operations at the airport next year.
“We have already placed our full Cardiff summer schedule on sale on wizzair.com and are introducing two new winter routes.
“It takes time to build up sustainable operations at any base and we are prepared to build up operations at Cardiff over the long term.”
Spencer Birns, chief executive of Cardiff Airport, commented: “It is disappointing and frustrating for our customers whose travel plans are disrupted as a result of Wizz Air’s reduction of operations at Cardiff Airport over the winter, which we understand is due to economic factors.
“We have seen great demand for travel to and from Wales this year and our teams have been working really hard to ensure our customers have been able to take safe journeys through the airport facilities with minimal disruption.
“Our efforts to work with airlines to deploy more capacity on high demand routes will certainly continue.
“The announcement today of the two new routes to Italy and Romania commencing this autumn along with the summer 2023 schedule is welcome news. We look forward to Wizz Air increasing its operations to popular holiday destinations from Cardiff again next spring.”
Last month, the future of Doncaster Sheffield airport was thrown into doubt after its owner said the site “may no longer be commercially viable”, especially following the withdrawal of Wizz Air.
The carrier announced in June that it will quit the airport, leaving Tui as the only remaining carrier based there.