Cardiff: Wizz Air Flights, New Routes & Schedule Updates

[TheLocalYokel]

I wonder to what degree if any Brexit will impact on travel between the UK and the former Eastern Bloc countries that have been served in recent years by a number of regional airports. At one time it was thought by many in the industry that Brexit would lead to a noticeable reduction in the number of passengers using these routes.

I don't know whether Wizz Air will bother itself about what happens across the estuary when it comes to its new CWL operation. Currently Ryanair, the largest operator of such routes at BRS, has yet to put on sale two of its Polish routes for next summer - Gdansk and Rzeszow; neither is Budapest on sale for summer 2021 either. Ryanair's four other Polish routes at BRS (one of which competes with easyJet - Krakow) are on sale for summer 2021. The only other Polish route there is Katowice, operated by Wizz, which is also on sale for summer 2021.

So Ryanair is either delaying putting on sale the missing summer 2021 routes at BRS or it has decided that they are no longer viable. It can't be load factors because every summer the Polish routes all see monthly load factors well in excess of 90%. If yield is the problem on the missing routes Wizz might think it can do better at CWL, especially with no local competition, although I don't know how closely its UK company relates to its Hungarian parent when it comes to operational matters. Doncaster-Sheffield Airport, which is probably a good comparator for CWL, has a decent array of Wizz routes, some operated by Wizz Air UK and others by Wizz Air Hungary.

 

[Jerry]

At the moment i generally think that the Eastern Europe routes that would be the most likely out of Cardiff is either Bourgas or Varna. I'm not sure a city route like Budapest or Krakow or Warsaw or Gdansk would work at the moment personally. Also it's probable that any routes like that may well need a significant amount of inbound tourists from them to help make the routes sustainable.

 

[Cardiffbay]

At the moment i generally think that the Eastern Europe routes that would be the most likely out of Cardiff is either Bourgas or Varna. I'm not sure a city route like Budapest or Krakow or Warsaw or Gdansk would work at the moment personally. Also it's probable that any routes like that may well need a significant amount of inbound tourists from them to help make the routes sustainable.

I’m not so sure they wouldn’t work especially with it looking like at the moment Ryanair are scaling back their network to Eastern Europe from Bristol. Wizz might fancy a go with no competition

 

[Jerry]

I’m not so sure they wouldn’t work especially with it looking like at the moment Ryanair are scaling back their network to Eastern Europe from Bristol. Wizz might fancy a go with no competition

The problem i see is if those routes were profitable Ryanair wouldn't be potentially dropping them. Do we really want Wizz taking risks with routes at the moment?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Will Wizz be using a 320 or 321 at CWL?

 

[Jerry]

Will Wizz be using a 320 or 321 at CWL?

A321 according to the seat map. If they add a 2nd could be either same with non based routes.

 

[Jerry]

Booked the inaugural flight to Heraklion for 26th March! Does involve an early start but will be good to fly a new airline and go to a new country and new part of Europe. I've not been to Crete or the eastern Med before.

 

[superking]

Have a good time out there Jerry. I do hope the airline dont let you down,as it hears so many different things about the airline.

 

[Marko1]

Greece is one of my favourite places. You shall have to do a trip report Jerry

 

[Jerry]

Will be my first time there. After a couple of days I'm flying to Athens with volotea. Spend a day there before flying back. I'm already looking forward to it!

 

[Chris Gronow]

Why do flights only show as available with some holiday sites and not others?
For example if you want to book a holiday to Crete on June 4th for a week with Travel Republic then the only flights that show are via Amsterdam with KLM.

If you do the same search with on the beach holidays then the Wizz Air flights show.

Would these holiday companies not all be linked to some kind of flight booking engine? It doesn't help either the airline or the holiday company if flights exist but are not even an option.

 

[Jerry]

Why do flights only show as available with some holiday sites and not others?
For example if you want to book a holiday to Crete on June 4th for a week with Travel Republic then the only flights that show are via Amsterdam with KLM.

If you do the same search with on the beach holidays then the Wizz Air flights show.

Would these holiday companies not all be linked to some kind of flight booking engine? It doesn't help either the airline or the holiday company if flights exist but are not even an option.

It appears that Travel Republic don't offer Wizz Air flights at all.

 

[Chris Gronow]

Seems crazy, surely that's to their detriment.

 

[Jerry]

They don't use Ryanair either by the looks of it.

Seems crazy, surely that's to their detriment.

 

[Jerry]

Has anyone seen or heard any adverts on tv and radio about the new Wizz base? Someone questioned the amount of advertising that's been done. I checked the airports social media feed and counted about 7 posts since December with the last advertising Wizz on 1st January.
Not sure though if there have been any radio or TV ads though.

 

[Seasider]

I have not seen any TV adverts for Wizz Air and I live in DSA catchment area. I think they must use social media.

 

[Matt787]

They have been using the radio as my local airport is Doncaster and I’ve heard it serval times now

I have not seen any TV adverts for Wizz Air and I live in DSA catchment area. I think they must use social media.

 

[Jerry]

TV adverts would probably be pushing the budget a bit but radio and bus stop ads?

 

[Jerry]

Wizz Air have started to recruit for their new Cardiff base!

 

[geoff]

Posters on dried plum, are stating that there are 4 more A321 aircraft on the way ,to Wizz UK in a few months time, any chance I wonder of Wizz expanding at CWL?