Wizz Air presents its Net Zero strategy, warns more must be done faster
Yvonne Moynihan, Wizz Air’s Corporate & ESG Officer, presenting the airline’s Net Zero strategy
Pan-European low-cost airline Wizz Air chose Earth Day to present its net zero roadmap, “Flying Towards Net Zero”.
At an event in Budapest with members of the media on April 22, 2025, Wizz Air’s Corporate & ESG Officer, Yvonne Moynihan, laid out the main lines of the airline’s long-term vision in this field.
The unveiling of this initiative, actually, comes a few days after Wizz Air presented a broader, comprehensive €14 billion program called “Customer First Compass”, which aims to streamline numerous aspects of the airline’s passenger experience, from customer service to fleet renewal. Many of the “Customer First Compass” elements, such as the continuous update of the fleet with newer, more efficient A321neo aircraft, actually overlap with those of the “Flying Towards Net Zero” strategy.
Wizz Air takes pride in being already the less carbon intensive airline in Europe thanks to its fuel efficient, densely-configured modern fleet. In 2024 CO2 emissions were 52g of carbon per passenger and km, which compares favourably not just with legacy full service carriers, but also with its most direct low cost peers.
This strategy to keep driving down carbon intensity through investment in fleet efficiency will continue in years to come. In fact it is Fleet renewal (and aircraft technology) is one of the three “Fs” through which Wizz Air aims to keep the top spot in the sustainability rankings. Wizz Air expects these incremental improvements to account for around 30% of the reduction in carbon emissions (this percentage can be further broken down in: pure fleet renewal, that is just getting newer aircraft with existing tech, -7%, aircraft and engine tech improvements expected to take place over the coming years, -21%, and operational improvements, another -2%).
The A321XLR neo, one of Wizz Air’s tools to continue reducing its relative carbon intensity. Image: Wizz Air
The larger drop in emissions overall (-53%) is expected to come from another “F”: Fuel, and most particularly sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
Unlike other airlines, Wizz Air is refraining from investing in new propulsion technologies that don’t have yet a clear path to certification and, ultimately, to market.
Investing in SAF development and production
However, Wizz Air has made direct investments in a couple of SAF ventures: it put £5 million into Firefly, a startup that has come up with a novel way to produce SAF out of sewage called hydrothermal liquefaction, and, together with a other airlines of the Indigo Partners family, has participated in a $50 million round to invest in CleanJoule, a US-based firm that is developing a promising new method to produce SAF rom agricultural waste.
Moynihan pointed out that these are long term projects. Firefly, for example, is not expected to start producing SAF until 2027-29. So, even if Firefly starts producing in this time-frame, the amounts are expected to cover only a rather small portion of the quantities of SAF Wizz Air will need to fulfill its commitment to use 10% SAF by 2030. Since Firefly’s plant is in England, it should help cover at least some of the needs of the airline’s UK operation.
CleanJoule production plans are even further into the future.
SAF presents, at the moment, the surest way to reduce emissions significantly, but quite a few practical obstacles remain on the way, though, and this is even before considering the no small matter of cost (which may go down once SAF is produced at scale, whichever the pathway).
Even if we take into account the EU’s so-called “Flexibility Mechanism”, the logistics of SAF uplift present a complex picture. Since Wizz Air operates at over 100 airports in the EU, it will be difficult to source always and everywhere the amounts of SAF required by the mandates.
Mechanisms like “Book and claim” make a lot of sense, said Moynihan, but it would be even better to be able to consolidate uplift at those airports where it is more efficient (in both an operational and financial sense) to uplift SAF. Wizz Air’s main base in Budapest is not, yet, one of those points, although the airline is working with the Hungarian authorities and the local energy companies on a national SAF strategy for Hungary.
Finally, the third and smaller (in terms of emissions reduction it is reponsible for) “F” is Footprint, which is expected to account for 4% of the emissions reduction. And what does “footprint” include, I hear you asking: this is mostly the optimization of air traffic control procedures, a long-standing claim of the industry.
During her presentation, Moynihan called for European governments to take more vigorous action to scale up SAF production through policies and incentives. Leading airlines like Wizz Air are playing their part by investing in those areas that are under their direct control, such as fleet efficiency and operational optimization, but governments, regulators and the fuel industry could do way more to facilitate the green transition in aviation.
This passes through picking the low-hanging fruit, like airspace management reform, for example, but will also need more radical intervention, otherwise, Wizz Air warns, the aviation industry will fail to meet its environmental commitments.
Btw, if you wish to learn more about Wizz Air’s history, business model and strategy do not miss this hour-long video interview I did for AeroTime’s Executive Spotlight back in 2023: