Wizz Air, one of Europe’s fastest growing low-cost airlines is to close its onboard retail tender request for proposals on 19 February, after inviting offers from inflight retail specialists just prior to Christmas.

 

The scheduled short and medium-haul point-to-point airline is understood to have invited several specialist onboard retailers to participate in the tender for a business selling buy on board food, drink and duty free items.

 

Several companies – including the incumbent Gate Retail Onboard – are expected to bid for the business on an airline boasting 400 routes to 117 destinations in 38 countries and 23 bases in Central and Eastern Europe last year. The airline is said to be hoping to make a new contract award by the end of March.

 

 

In total, the multi-award winning Wizz Air handled 19m passengers in 2015, an impressive 22% rise over 2014, as it also took delivery of its first two Airbus A321 aircraft, bringing its total fleet to 65 aircraft.

 

Retailers contacted by TRBusiness estimate the value of its buy on board business in the region of €50m ($56.6m) and growing fast.

 

The publicly-quoted company (London Stock Exchange since 2015) is currently valued within the FTSE 250 and it also has a very good reputation for an enthusiastic cabin crew sales force, whose earnings are directly linked to food and retail sales onboard.

 

Meanwhile, it is understood that airline management may be looking at the possibility of asking its new contract partner to provide a pre-order programme, although TRBusiness cannot confirm this.

 

 

However, if this is the case then this could be a significant logistics challenge for some, considering Wizz Air sometimes operates more than one base in several of the 38 countries it currently serves and many will be required to function as uplift bases for provisions and buy on board items.

 

 

Currently, the airline offers a series of meal deals like many other airlines, but it also has a reasonable duty free offer consisting of watches (4 models); women’s fragrances (20); male fragrances (8); cosmetics items (9); gadgets (5); and toys (6).