Wizz Air UK has announced a new base at Cardiff Airport, which will be its fourth alongside London Luton, Gatwick and Doncaster Sheffield.

The airline will allocate one Airbus A321 aircraft to Cardiff, a new airport for Wizz Air’s services, and will launch nine new leisure routes.

The new base will offer year-round low fares from Cardiff for the first time, with connections to sun destinations including Alicante, Faro, Larnaca and Tenerife as well as seasonal routes during the summer to Corfu, Heraklion and Palma de Mallorca and routes to Lanzarote and Sharm El Sheikh during the winter season.

Wizz Air UK’s managing director, Owain Jones, said: “This is an extremely exciting time for Wizz Air as we increase our footprint in the UK even further. The creation of our fourth UK base at Cardiff Airport reflects Wizz Air’s continued commitment to serving the UK market and generating economic growth, as we create local jobs, stimulate the tourism and hospitality industries and deliver on our promise of providing affordable, direct flights to exciting holiday destinations.

Today’s expansion into Wales brings increased connectivity to the region, so passengers can take advantage of Wizz Air’s ultra-low fares to travel to their favourite sunny holiday spots on-board our young and green aircraft fleet. With the launch of 47 new routes from the UK this year alone, we’re making sure that passengers can make up for lost time in creating amazing travel memories.”

The company says that as Wizz Air’s first venture into Wales, the new base represents a “significant investment” in Cardiff Airport and the local region by creating over 40 direct jobs.

This announcement follows a period of recent expansion for the airline, with Wizz Air UK opening new bases at Gatwick and Doncaster Sheffield Airport in October and adding an eleventh aircraft to its London Luton base in July.

With the allocation of this aircraft, Wizz Air UK’s fleet will grow to 14 aircraft and the addition of these new routes from Cardiff Airport means WIZZ now operates 132 routes from 11 UK airports.