Wizz Air lands its licence for UK flights post-Brexit

Hungary-headquartered Wizz Air on Tuesday said the government has rubber-stamped its plan for a UK route licence, allowing the budget carrier to operate here fully following Brexit.

The firm, which has a base at Luton airport, said it got final approval from transport secretary Chris Grayling in October to have a UK-based subsidiary.

That means its planes can keep flying from here to non EU-countries even if Britain has stricter aviation rules once it leaves the bloc.

Wizz Air first got backing for the plan in May from the Civil Aviation Authority. The company today said the government’s final decision is “future-proofing the status of Wizz Air as a British airline”.

Its passenger numbers rose 14.8% in October to 3.1 million. The shares rose 80p to 2697p.

Also today, easyJet said it carried 8.6 million customers last month, up 14.1%.

Traffic was boosted by operations at Tegel airport, which easyJet acquired after German carrier Air Berlin collapsed last year.