Wizz Air (W6, Budapest) has announced it will launch its first flights to Russia from Western Europe on October 1, 2019.

The Hungarian LCC said in a press release that daily services from London Luton to each of Moscow Vnukovo and St. Petersburg will be operated by its Wizz Air UK (W9, London Luton) subsidiary using A321-200 aircraft.

According to the ch-aviation schedules module, Wizz Air currently flies to Vnukovo 11x weekly from Budapest and 2x weekly from Debrecen. It also operates 5x weekly between the Hungarian capital and St. Petersburg.

The airline operates 444 weekly departures from Luton and has a 40.4% market share by capacity at the airport, marginally ahead of easyJet. Wizz Air predominantly connects Luton with Central and Eastern Europe, but also flies from there to Portugal, Greece, Reykjavik Keflavik in Iceland, Bari in Italy, Tirana in Albania, Tel Aviv Ben Gurion in Israel, Bergen in Norway, and Turku in Finland.

The London-Russia market is currently served by British Airways (BA, London Heathrow), which operates from London Heathrow to Moscow Domodedovo (14x weekly), Moscow Sheremetyevo (7x weekly), and St. Petersburg (7x weekly), and Aeroflot (SU, Moscow Sheremetyevo), which operates from Heathrow to Sheremetyevo (35x weekly) and from London Gatwick to St. Petersburg (daily operated by Rossiya).