More than a year after it dismantled its Emirati base, Wizz Air is preparing to fly to the UAE again, telling followers on Instagram that a dozen routes and 49 weekly departures will reconnect the carrier to Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
The plan reaches beyond the Emirates. Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Amman in Jordan round out the four destinations named in the airline’s social media post, which framed the move as a revival rather than a fresh launch: “Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Jeddah and Amman are coming back with 12 routes and 49 weekly flights. Book them now!”
What remains unclear is nearly all of the detail beneath that headline figure. The carrier has not spelled out where the 12 routes will actually fly, when passengers can start boarding them, or how the 49 weekly frequencies will be split across the four cities. Also unresolved is the corporate shape of the relaunch — whether the flights will run under the airline’s European arms or through some newly established local setup.
The comeback follows a retreat that took effect on September 1, 2025, when Wizz Air Abu Dhabi formally wound down, its last departures from the base flown the day before. That exit also severed the airline’s regional joint venture.
Behind the earlier shutdown lay a cluster of pressures. The carrier pointed to a punishing operating climate in the region, along with engine reliability problems tied to running aircraft in extreme heat, as weighing on the Abu Dhabi venture. Geopolitical tension, disrupted airspace and other operational limits compounded the difficulties.
Even after the local operation folded, the airline never fully withdrew from the region — a handful of services continued to reach the Gulf by way of its broader European route map.
