Editor’s Note: AirlineGeeks is proud to present our ‘Livery of the Week’ series. Every Friday, a team member will share an airline livery, which can be from the past, present, or even a special scheme. Some airline liveries are works of art. The complexity associated with painting around critical flight components and the added weight requires outside-the-box thinking from designers. The average airliner can cost upwards of $200,000 to repaint, creating a separate aircraft repainting industry as a result.
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While in the U.S., carriers following the ultra-low-cost model are experiencing turbulent times and appear to struggle in their quest for a sustainable position in the marketplace, in other parts of the world, some have established themselves as solid market leaders.
One of them is Wizz Air, a Hungarian airline founded in 2004, now connecting 194 airports across Europe and the Middle East, and last year it carried more than 62 million passengers. The airline has recently added the 250th aircraft to its all-Airbus fleet, and it has decided to celebrate the event with a special livery created through a public contest.
Livery by Contest
Last September, the carrier launched a competition allowing anyone to submit a proposal for a livery celebrating the expansion of the fleet to 250 aircraft, with the winner to be rewarded with 1000 Euros in flight vouchers.
The winning design features the number “250” before the “Wizz” stylized logo on the white part of the fuselage in the front, and a number of colored ribbons adorning the back part of the fuselage painted in the airline’s signature pink.
“The 250th aircraft is far more than just adding another aircraft to our fleet,” said Wizz Air’s CEO Joseph Varadi during the unveiling ceremony at the airline’s Budapest base. “It is a defining moment in Wizz Air’s history. It proves that our strategy is working, and our momentum now is stronger than ever.”
The airline is operating a fleet with a mix of A320 and A320neo jets, as well as A321s and A321neos and XLRs, and has a strong order book, which should double the number of aircraft in operation to 500 by 2033.
The latest addition to the fleet is an A321neo, registered as 9H-WMR, delivered to the Wizz Malta division of the airline on Nov. 20. The aircraft is configured in an all-economy high-density layout with a 28 to 29-inch seat pitch.
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