Wizz Air CEO: We’ll open Israel hub in April

In a joint declaration with Minister of Transport Miri Regev, Wizz Air CEO Jozsef Varadi announced the establishment of a Wizz Air hub in Israel in April 2026. This will be a dramatic boost to competition in aviation in Israel. The Histadrut (General Federation of Labor in Israel) is intervening on behalf of the unions at the Israeli airlines to prevent the move, but it appears that it will nevertheless come to fruition. El Al’s share price is currently down by more than 6% in the wake of the declaration.

“We are acting on all channels to bring down the cost of living,” Regev said. “The open skies reform has proved successful, and maintained the strength of the Israeli airlines, led to lower fares, and offered more destinations to the Israel public.” She added that although the Israeli airlines had continued flying during emergencies, they had exploited the shortage of flights to gouge prices “and that is unacceptable.”

“One of the aims of any government is to ensure low air fares,” Varadi said. “We can add value and create a low-cost alternative for people who want to travel. We are fully committed to proceeding with this and actually setting up the hub in Israel.” Varadi said that his company wanted to start operations “as soon as possible” and even as early as next March or April. “We want to appear as your business partner, as a corporate citizen involved in Israel,” he said.

Regev said that several issues had arisen in the talks with the Wizz Air CEO. One of them was the use of Eilat’s Ramon Airport, which the government wishes to encourage, and it appears that that matter has not been completely resolved. “The professional teams will continue to bridge the gaps in regulation, and we shall hold another meeting in January,” Regev said. In other words, it is possible that Wizz Air will divide its activity between Ben Gurion Airport and Ramon Airport, but it is not yet clear how.

The main gap between the sides is over Wizz Air’s demand to exercise what is known as the seventh freedom of the air, which is the right to fly directly between two destinations outside an airline’s home country.

Wizz Air, which is registered in Hungary, sought to operate flights from Israel to Europe, and there is no problem with that. The problems started when the airline realized that these flights would not be sufficient for it, and sought to operate flights from Israel to countries outside the EU, in the Balkans and later on to the UAE as well.

Israeli officials are divided on this demand. It will have a significant negative impact on the Israeli airlines, since Wizz Air will in effect be able to operate like an Israeli airline but without Israeli regulation that mandates security arrangements, collective labor agreements, and so on.

Meanwhile, Eyal Yadin, who is responsible for transport at the Histadrut, has written to Regev saying, “I wish to inform you that the aviation workers will not stand aside when their livelihoods and the futures of their families are thrown into the waste basket in a hasty move carried out at a time and in a fashion that raise questions. Unless a dialogue is conducted with the workers’ representatives, before promises and commitments are made that could have a severe impact on their future, further progress with the move is liable to encounter difficulties. In order to avoid unnecessary embarrassment I suggest postponing the meeting until matters are settled vis-à-vis the representative body of the aviation sector workers, as they should be.”

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on November 27, 2025.

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.