Wizz Air (W6, Budapest) chairman and CEO József Váradi says his airline could transition from an all-A320 to an all-A321 fleet should plans to introduce the latter from 2016 onwards bear fruits in terms of reducing the carrier's overall cost-per-passenger seat.

In September last year, the Hungarian carrier converted twenty-six of its remaining ninety orders for A320-200s into A321-200s with the first arrivals likely to be deployed on flights to Israel, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates and Russia.

Speaking to the international press in Budapest earlier this week, the CEO also disclosed that the airline intends to double its current fleet of fifty A320s over the next five years using its existing lease-only fleet ownership model. However, once Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) and Boeing (BOE, Washington National) begin rolling out their A320neo and B737 MAX Families of aircraft, Wizzair will then consider transitioning to an in-house fleet ownership model, he said, adding that a lack of cheap financing opportunities made direct ownership less attractive for the time being.

Váradi also noted that the airline's future growth plans would not be affected in any way by a recent decision to postpone a planned IPO on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). While he did not disclose the exact reason for the postponement, he did state that Wizz was worth far more than the GBP500million (USD849million) market players had speculated was a likely target valuation.

“That is not even in the ballpark when you consider the value of this company,” he said.