Huge Airbus Order Changes

A major order adjustment could be taking place at Airbus sooner rather than later, with Wizz Air involved.

The Hungary-based budget carrier, which has been looking to expand significantly, is in talks to delay the delivery of around 100 future aircraft from the planemaker.

Deliveries scheduled between now and 2030 as part of the deferral would be pushed back into the 2030s, Bloomberg News reported, citing its sources.

While Wizz Air has been aggressively expanding its operations over recent years, as evidenced by its extensive backlog, the low-cost carrier has still faced financial strain.

Only at the mid-point of the 2025 calendar year did the airline say it had missed the profit estimates it had outlined and, as a result, would be forced to review its options for moving forward.

The airlines’ missed results were primarily driven by the continued operational challenges that have been hurting the business for some time, from aircraft groundings across its next-generation Airbus fleet, spurred on by engine concerns.

With a significant portion of its fleet affected, the airline has worked closely with Pratt & Whitney and even Airbus to mitigate some of the impact. Still, the delays, which have stretched for years, have not helped its position as 2026 approaches.

Additionally, engine-related issues are not expected to fully ease until the end of 2027, based only on current forecasts, meaning Wizz Air would be without crucial Airbus aircraft for some time due to the groundings.

Talk as well of the airline’s possible move to defer the delivery of aircraft from Airbus as part of existing orders follows murmurings early this year, which suggested the airline would possibly look to alter delivery schedules to manage capacity.

Deferals are not uncommon across the industry and can ultimately occur for a host of reasons, sometimes driven by poor planning at airlines, changes in operational requirements from the time of purchase to delivery, or a poor financial position that prevents growth from occurring at the pace initially expected.

Wizz Air’s Airbus A321XLR Change

There has ultimately been significant change at Wizz Air in 2025 alone, one of the headline decisions which has now only partly been reversed was the changes to its Middle East operation.

Wizz Air confirmed in July that it would move ahead with plans to reduce its future fleet of Airbus A321XLR jets during a quarterly briefing.

Previously, the airline was planning to take delivery of close to 50 of the extra-long-range jets and even considered increasing commitments as it studied how market conditions were to evolve.

However, when the airline chose to close its base in the Middle East, a part of the world that would’ve benefited from the A321XLR, its long-term strategy also underwent a significant shift.

That shift meant that having jets with such extended-range capabilities was no longer required at the same rate as once intended. As a result, Wizz Air would choose to move ahead with just 10 to 15 XLR jets in its operation and instead add more of the base model A321neo.

For Wizz Air, the Middle East and the A321XLR found themselves in a ‘right place, wrong time’ scenario. The budget carrier confirmed that ongoing geopolitical tensions in neighbouring regions reduced demand for flights to these markets, altered flight paths, and impacted the bottom line.

However, it wasn’t just the tensions in the Middle East; Wizz Air also highlighted the A321neo family, which has been broadly affected by the Pratt & Whitney GTF engine crisis.

All in all, the airline’s Middle Eastern flights were performing below expectations, and instead of continuing with them, which would negatively impact the bottom line, changes have been made.

Changes are far more common for airlines such as Wizz Air, which operate on a tight budget and must ensure that perfromance across all routes can be maintained; if not, changes must occur.