Airline recovery not a straight line; uncertainty ahead - Wizz Air CEO

LONDON (Reuters) - The chief executive of Wizz air <WIZZ.L> said airlines faced months of uncertainty as some countries reintroduced restrictions and that the recovery of flying in Europe would not be "a straight line".

Wizz Air was flying 77% of its 2019 capacity last week, putting it ahead of many larger airlines which are still flying at less than half of last year's capacity as the travel market restarts slowly from months of lockdown and restrictions.

Wizz Air's CEO Jozsef Varadi said on a webcast at a virtual version of the Farnborough Airshow on Wednesday that airlines would have to be flexible and be able to quickly redeploy capacity in the current environment.

"We are seeing now measures taking the industry backwards, actually. We are seeing countries reintroducing restrictions, flight bans and all sorts of regulatory constraints," he said.

"I think the next period of time is going to be full of uncertainties in the operating environment."

(Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by Stephen Addison)