Wizz Air CEO József Váradi, right, at Routes World 2026.
FRANKFURT—Airline leaders are having to widen their strategic awareness in this era of supply chain issues, shaky geopolitics and spiraling fuel costs.
“When we started Wizz 20 years ago, I didn’t think of anything like geopolitics and supply chain issues,” Wizz Air CEO József Váradi told delegates at Routes World 2026 in Frankfurt.
Back then, the only issues Váradi focused on were market access and negotiating supplier contracts.
“The assumption was you got a contract, and the contract would perform. You didn’t have to worry about it,” Váradi said. “Now it doesn’t really matter what contract you sign.”
The supply chain is “a lot less reliable than ever before,” and geopolitical risk has escalated, Váradi said. These two topics now occupy his mind “quite considerably.”
“I didn’t have to deal with any of these matters, 10, 15, 20 years ago,” he said.
This sentiment was echoed by TUI Group head of communications and PR for Airlines Aage Dünhaupt. “Normally, as airline management, you were not involved in checking if certain waterways are available to get fuel,” Dünhaupt said. “There was never the question whether maybe no fuel is coming anymore because waterways are not available.”
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