With an initiative first of its kind in the industry, Wizz Air is to introduce additional charges for allocated seating. So far, the airline is operating a priority boarding service with a charge of £2 per passenger to board the aircraft before others. With the new initiative, the emergency-row seats - in rows 12 and 13 that are in high demand will no longer be available to the passengers on a first-come first served basis.
With effect from next week, the seats in the exit row are to cost an extra £3.50 for online booking or £7 for booking at the airport. In an industry that is constantly exploring new initiatives to raise revenue, this move is expected to trigger a worrying model, and perhaps a decrease in customer base of the airlines.

However, recently while introducing a fee of £2 for checking in at the airport, Ryanair commented that the airline has no intentions to follow the trend started by Wizz Air. Ryanair confirmed, "We already sell priority boarding and we'll be sticking with that."

In addition, EasyJet is also holding back from this trend for the time being, saying that it is not going to introduce additional charges for allocated seating as of its present position. However, Wizz Air is going to become the first of its kind airlines, and perhaps in future, more airlines would join the suit and introduce similar types of charges for allocated seating.