Wizz Air has launched a €3bn European medium term note (MTN) programme, which has been provisionally rated Baa3 by Moody’s and BBB- by Fitch Ratings.
Wizz Air has applied for the notes issued under the programme to be admitted to listing on the Irish Stock Exchange – Euronext Dublin – but states that they may also issue unlisted notes.
Barclays, BNP Paribas and Citigroup are arrangers and dealers.
Meanwhile, Wizz Air CEO József Váradi has hit out at the European Commission’s plan to end the current waiver from the 80-20 use-it-or-lose-it rule for airport slots. He considers the waiver as anti-competitive and an hindrance to the recovery of the EU aviation industry.
“I call on the European Commission to end the 80-20 slot waiver regulation for all airlines in Europe as of 25 October 2020 and support the recovery of the aviation sector, associated industries and national economies by allowing genuine market conditions to prevail,” said Váradi. “The calls to prolong the slot waiver until March 2021 are against free competition and protect incumbent airlines with weak business models while airlines like Wizz Air are ready to take up new market opportunities and provide even more low fare opportunities for their passengers and essential connectivity for countries. Even more so than the irrational amounts of state aid given to airlines who have manged themselves into a financial position with no resilience, slot blocking is a fraud against the tax payer as well as the travelling public.”
Wizz specifically takes Gatwick Airport as an example where incumbent airlines have scaled back their operations at, or withdrawn from, the airport entirely but are seeking to retain slots “that they have no intention of operating in the near future but object to the entry of new airlines – this is nothing more than anti-competitive slot-blocking,” says the airline in a release.