The carrier's liquidity shortfall was so acute that it was forced to suspend operations for the first six months of the year and raise a total of £1bn to shore up its balance sheet. Yet, just two months after restarting flights, the airline has lodged a $5bn order for 36 Airbus jets, with an option to buy a further 24 more. Meanwhile Wizz Air boss József Váradi and Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary seem determined to outdo each other in the contrarian stakes. Wizz Air is expanding from 25 to 43 operating bases, adding 50 new routes, and increasing its fleet by 16 to 137 aircraft as Váradi sets his sights on grabbing market share and cementing the carrier's dominance of central and eastern Europe. A push into the Middle East with a new hub in Abu Dhabi that will serve 5 billion people within a five hour flight radius looks even more ambitious given how the airline has fared in the last 12 months. Wizz swung from a pre-tax profit of £254m to a £489m loss in 2020 as passenger numbers plunged by 75pc to 10m.