Wizz Air, IPO in Flight Plan, Fights Ryanair in Eastern Europe

Jozsef Varadi was fired as chief executive officer of Malev Rt., Hungary's state-owned airline, in March 2003. Fourteen months later, he started Wizz Air Ltd. and cut Malev's domestic market share by more than a third.

Wizz Air, whose fares are about two-thirds lower than Malev's, carried 1.2 million people in its first year and now links seven cities in eastern Europe with 14 in the west. The Budapest-based airline has agreed to buy as many as 24 Airbus A340s and plans to sell shares to the public within three years.