Wizz Air

Wizz Air confirms 88 Airbus delivery deferrals, slashes A321XLR order book to 11 units

Wizz Air reiterated that its order book for 273 Airbus A321neo aircraft remains intact.

Photo: Wizz Air

Wizz Air has confirmed previous reports that the low-cost carrier would be looking to defer Airbus deliveries, with the airline also lowering the number of A321XLR orders from 47 to 11, which includes five long-range aircraft that Airbus had already delivered.

In a short statement on November 7, 2025, Wizz Air affirmed previous reports by Bloomberg that it was exploring changes to its delivery schedule of Airbus aircraft. Now, the low-cost carrier has rescheduled 88 aircraft deliveries, which were previously scheduled through fiscal year 2030, which ends on March 31, 2031, to be delivered through the fiscal year 2033, which ends on March 31, 2033.

The airline noted that its backlog of 273 A321neo aircraft, which includes the A321XLR, remains intact.

Furthermore, the Hungary-based carrier slashed the number of A321XLR deliveries: instead of the original 47, it will now welcome up to 11, which includes five A321XLRs Airbus had handed over to Wizz Air between May 19, 2025, and October 15.

This includes the airframe registered as G-XLRA, which suffered a tailstrike while landing at Prague Airport (PRG) on September 11. The A321XLR has remained on the ground in the Czech capital since the incident, Flightradar24 records showed.

Despite the change to its delivery schedule, Wizz Air said that its plans to achieve a 10% to 12% “seat capacity growth rate through 2030” are still here, and that by the end of calendar year 2029, its whole fleet should consist of only next-generation Airbus single-aisle aircraft, including the A320neo and A321neo.

Planespotters.net indicated that currently, Wizz Air, which includes its subsidiaries in Malta and the United Kingdom, has 245 aircraft in its fleet, split between 28 A320ceo, six A320neo, 38 A321ceo, and 173 A321neos.

As of September 30, Wizz Air had 281 A321neo aircraft in its backlog. Since then, Airbus has delivered nine A321neo aircraft, including two A321XLRs, during the month of October.

Its latest delivery arrived on October 30, when Airbus handed over an A321neo, registered as 9H-WML, to Wizz Air Malta, with the aircraft landing at Rome Fiumicino Airport (FCO) upon delivery. It entered service the next day, flying to Madrid Barajas Airport (MAD) for its first commercial flight.

Nevertheless, Wizz Air has recently been recalibrating its growth plans, affirming that it would focus on its core markets in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). When it announced its Q1 FY26 results on July 24, József Váradi, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Wizz Air, said that the CEE region meets its criteria of an “environmentally benign operating” environment and “where we already have or will have market share.”

At the same time, Váradi noted that the airline is looking to rationalize its A321XLR “program,” as well as working toward reactivating the grounded A320neo and A321neo aircraft, which have been bogged down due to the accelerated removals and inspections of the Pratt & Whitney PW1100G engines following the discovery of a powder metal issue that affected engines built between Q4 2015 and Q3 2021.

“This will require further modification to our aircraft delivery schedules to reduce our growth rate to levels that support the demand this revised network will require.”

In addition to the delivery deferrals, it has closed its joint venture based at Abu Dhabi Zayed International Airport (AUH), and has begun to wind down its base at Vienna Airport (VIE).