Wizz Air Holdings Plc, Europe’s fastest-growing low-cost airline, escalated a spat with full-service rivals over carbon emissions, saying their reliance on lucrative business-class fares is at the heart of the industry’s problems with environmental campaigners.
Airlines like Deutsche Lufthansa AG, which has attacked discounters for stimulating non-vital travel, rely on transporting corporate flyers in heavy seats with a CO2 footprint many times that of economy berths, Wizz Chief Executive Officer Jozsef Varadi said in an interview Thursday. They also fly older, thirstier jets with wasteful low-density layouts, he added.