József Váradi


The native form of this personal name is Váradi József János. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.
József Váradi is a Hungarian businessman, a co-founder of Wizz Air, and its chief executive officer since 2003. He is also CEO at Wizz Air Hungary Airlines Ltd.

Early life

Váradi was born in Debrecen, Hungary in 1965. Growing up in difficult circumstances, his parents struggled with daily existence. His father took part in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, so he had to go to jail and after it maintained his family for occasional work.
Váradi moved to Budapest when 18 and earned a degree in economics from Budapest University of Economic Sciences in 1989. He completed an LLM from the University of London in 2014.

Career

Váradi worked for Procter & Gamble for ten years, rising to sales director for Central and Eastern Europe. Since 1999 he served as CEO of the struggling Hungarian state-owned airline Malév Hungarian Airlines.
In 2001, the government helped Malév's losses with HUF9.2 billion. Váradi left the company in March 2003.

Wizz Air

In 2003, Váradi started Wizz Air Ltd. With the low-cost carrier, he cut Malév's domestic market share by more than a third. Wizz Air is headquartered in Budapest, based in Geneva. In 2018, it was the largest airline in Central and Eastern Europe, carrying over 34 million passengers per year. It had a fleet of 105 aircraft.
Wizz Air has a separate Ukrainian and entered the Austrian market in 2018. Váradi told Italian daily newspaper La Republica on 23 January 2018, that he was interested in Italy's struggling carrier Alitalia, but only regarding short and medium-haul routes.
Váradi launched a United Kingdom subsidiary of Wizz Air as part of Brexit contingence plans and met with UK Prime Minister Theresa May to discuss aviation concerns regarding the Brexit. In November 2019, Váradi said that BREXIT would not have a significant impact on aviation, with London remaining the largest air travel market in the world.
In the second half of 2019, environmental protection concerns about the flight, embodied in the "flightshame" movement, have been dismissed by Váradi as saying that Wizz Air is the greenest airline. This is based on the per-passenger emission level, adding that it will reduce emissions per capita by an additional 30 percent by 2030. At the same time, he has condemned inefficiency airlines -such as Lufthansa- offering business class and use outdated technologies, which cause far more specific environmental damage than Wizz Air.

Awards

Váradi is one of the Board of Directors at Wizz Air Holdings Plc. and Wizz Air Hungary Airlines Ltd. Previously he was employed as a Commissioner by PT Mandela Airlines, a member of the supervisory board at Lufthansa Technik Budapest Kft, a Chief Executive Officer at Malév Hungarian Airlines Zrt and a sales director in charge of global customers at Procter & Gamble Ltd.
József Váradi is the 34th richest man in Hungary with a wealth of 33.5 billion forints in 2019, while according to the Influence Barometer he is the 33rd most influential person in Hungary.

Family

Married to Kinga Bóta, world champion and Olympic silver medalist in kayaking; Secretary General of the Budapest Olympic Movement for the Hungarian Sport Foundation.