ABU DHABI - Wizz Air expects 15-20% growth in passenger volume next year, its chief executive told Reuters on Monday, with new low-cost routes to the Middle East, such as from Europe to the United Arab Emirates, adding an extra boost.

"Globally, we are expecting 15-20% (growth), but I think Abu Dhabi is going to grow beyond this," Jozsef Varadi said.

Hungary-based Wizz Air, which carried a record 62 million passengers during the year ended in March 2024, set up operations in the UAE in 2019 as a joint venture with Abu Dhabi's third biggest sovereign wealth fund ADQ.

In the Middle East, where concerns of a wider flare up of the war in Gaza have prompted international airlines to suspend flights or avoid air space, Wizz Air is monitoring every development, Varadi said.

He added that Wizz Air wants to develop Saudi Arabia as an inbound market rather than setting up a local carrier there.

The airline, which flies an all-Airbus fleet, last week announced it would deploy its first A321XLR, a single-aisle aircraft that will allow it to cover longer distances, to operate a route between London's Gatwick airport and Saudi Arabia's Jeddah starting from March 2025.

Another A321XLR aircraft will operate a daily flight between Milan Malpensa airport and Abu Dhabi starting from June next year.

"Certainly we are very excited about Jeddah," Varadi said. "We are seeing that more European operations might be flown inbound to Saudi in the future."

He said, however, that all new routes were subject to regulatory approvals and capacity constraints due to troubles with Pratt & Whitney engines, which forced Wizz Air to ground part of its fleet, contributing to a 44% drop in first-quarter operating profit.

As the aviation sector struggles with delays from manufacturers Boeing and Airbus, European airlines have also faced a difficult first half of the year because of rising and softening demand after an initial post-pandemic boom.

Wizz Air's London-listed shares dropped almost 42% over the last 12 months.

"I don't think that the share price is reflective of the actual performance of the business," said Varadi.

He said the market was over-reacting and Wizz Air was being "disproportionately affected" by factors such as geopolitics and problems with Pratt and Whitney's engines.

Asked about fares, Varadi said summer data showed Wizz Air was not seeing as huge price declines as those that some rivals had flagged.

(Reporting by Federico Maccioni, editing by Tomasz Janowski and Christina Fincher)