Wizz Air has further expanded its London Luton base with the allocation of a ninth A321 Airbus aircraft and the launch of two new routes to the Portuguese capital of Lisbon and Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv.

Seats are on sale from today.

UK travellers now have the opportunity to explore one of Ukraine’s major cultural and scientific centres in Kharviv from mid-November, and experience the liveliness of Lisbon from the end of October.

The newly allocated aircraft means that Wizz will increase the flight frequency of three existing London Luton routes.

Flights to Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, will increase from three to five a week; flights to the Albanian capital of Tirana will increase from three to four a week; and flights to Satu Mare in Romania from two to three a week.

By the end of the year, Wizz Air’s local team in London Luton will have grown to more than 350 aviation professionals.

The new services bring the total number of new UK routes for 2018 to 19, and the number of new routes from London Luton to 14, including Larnaca, Tirana, Tallinn, Bratislava, Lviv, Athens, Keflavik, Eilat, Grenoble, Verona, Bari and Tromsø.

Currently the second largest operator at London Luton, 2018 has been a year of significant growth for Wizz Air’s Luton operations, with 7.17 million seats on sale on 53 routes, representing a 20 per cent increase year-on-year.

Wizz Air chief corporate officer, Owain Jones, said: “New opportunities for Wizz Air’s UK customers to travel to more and more exciting destinations just keep on coming.

“Our ninth brand new Airbus A321 aircraft will arrive at London Luton at the end of 2018, allowing us to launch two new routes from London Luton to Lisbon and Kharkiv as well as increase frequencies on some of our most in-demand flights to Pristina, Tirana and Satu Mare.”