The move comes as part of Wizz Air’s new marketing campaign, “Fly the Greenest.”

The campaign took off on the afternoon of Thursday, Jan. 20, with an open letter Váradi sent to potential passengers. “When you don’t need to fly, please, don’t. But when you do, fly the greenest,” the CEO said.

He went on to list seven reasons why he says “Wizz Air is your greenest choice.” The first of these is the insistance that a passenger travelling with Wizz will have a CO2 footprint of only 57.2 grams per kilometer on average, according to pre-COVID data.

“If every airline would be as efficient as us, European CO2 emissions from aviation would reduce by 34% overnight,” Váradi claims.

He continues that the airline won’t fly half-empty planes and does not have business class seating, meaning it can avoid “unnecessary pollution” and “needless emissions.”

He says the carrier uses world-class engines and aircraft, crucial for low emissions, and adds that it boasts “the youngest, most modern fleet among European competitor airlines with 50-plus aircraft.”

He concludes that Wizz only flies direct routes (“One take-off, one landing, no connecting flights, no extra fuel-burn”) and that “None of our routes have a direct train alternative under four hours.”

Earlier in January, the airline announced it had been named the the most sustainable European airline based on the classification of Sustainalytics, a Morningstar company that provides high-quality, analytical environmental, social and governance (ESG) research, ratings and data to institutional investors and companies. In 2021, the airline was also named the most sustainable company in the aviation industry by World Finance Magazine.

This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of January 28, 2022.