Wizz Air’s CEO József Váradi has confirmed that the airline has ‘no interest’ in launching a transatlantic service as he ‘doesn’t want to be buried in the ocean’.

“Because that’s what has happened to all the other airlines that have tried it,” he said while explaining his colourful turn of phrase to an audience of reporters invited to cover the launch of a new long-range London-Jeddah service.

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“Look at BA, From London to New York, it has 34 daily flights, some flown by British Airways, some are codeshared with other operators. Think about it, it only takes about six seats to be dumped against us per flight, free of charge, and we’d be dead. We just don’t think we have a proposition for the current market set-up,” he said adding that there were plenty of other destinations that the carrier’s incoming fleet of A321XLR aircraft can reach.

Váradi was no doubt referring to the dozen or so single-class operators from both the premium and the LCC sectors that have withdrawn from the route over the years.

“Don’t forget that the North Atlantic is an oligopoly across three alliances,” he added. “It is a hard nut to crack. We have so many other opportunities, so I am just not excited about the north Atlantic. It is an exciting market overall, as it is so topical, but here we have much bigger ‘fish to fly'”.