Wizz Air

[TheLocalYokel]

http://www.novinite.com/articles/170231 ... March+2016?

New route from Sofia from next March - 2 x weekly (Mon and Fri). Excellent news.

It will be the first time that a scheduled route has operated from BRS to the Bulgarian capital although winter weekly ski charters have been regular features for many years.

 

[Marko1]

Well I wasn't expecting Sofia I must admit. I wonder whether we may see some more routes over the next few months. Well done Bristol and wizz air !!

 

[tpm]

The web booking engine offers flights on Thursday+Sunday though, not Monday/Friday.

 

[alphagolf]

The web booking engine offers flights on Thursday+Sunday though, not Monday/Friday.

I contacted Bristol Airport today and they have confirmed that the flights are Thursday & Sunday as per the Wizz Air booking engine and not as reported to operate on Monday and Fridays. The airport advised they had been given the incorrect dates from Wizz Air. They have now updated their media reports to reflects the operating days.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Wizz Air Further Expansion?

A poster on another forum who I would not dismiss out of hand is suggesting that Sofia will be the first of about six further routes that Wizz will announce at BRS; some might compete with Ryanair.

My alter ego on that forum posted the following reply.

Ryanair currently flies to Warsaw Modlin, Poznan, Wroclaw, Rzeszow, Gdansk, Budapest and Kaunas in the old 'Eastern Bloc' (Modlin and Budapest at 3 x weekly, the remainder 2 x weekly).

You will know better than me , I'm sure, that all the Ryanair BRS 'Eastern Bloc' routes enjoy monthly load factors in excess of 90%, often in the high 90s%, at least in the summer. Winter can be slightly less and not all the routes operate then.

But then so did Katowice and Bratislava but Ryanair axed these, presumably because the yield was not to their liking.

The only other former Eastern Bloc routes from BRS are easyJet's Krakow, Prague (both mainly 4 x weekly) and Berlin Schoenhof (mainly 6 x weekly).

I really wonder whether any of the above routes would stand competition. I'd like to see Wizz tackle some routes not currently flown. It would be a shame to have two airlines competing on a route that satisfied neither with the result that both pulled out.

Looking at the Wizz bases Riga stands out in terms of evidence of a market. Ryanair used to operate it with summer monthly load factors over 90% but pulled out in early 2012. Wizz took on Katowice after Ryanair decided it was not for them (and quickly added a third weekly rotation) so maybe Wizz would look at Riga.

Capital cities not served from BRS but sites of Wizz bases are Belgrade and Bucharest. If Sofia shows promise with bookings perhaps we might see one or both of these.

I suspect the airport would be pleased to have some more non-based aircraft operating in to spread the load. There can be nearly 30 departures before 0800 in summer.

 

[conns757]

and another ..............

 

[TheLocalYokel]

and another ..............

Many thanks conns.

Nothing on the airport or Wizz websites yet. Tomorrow?

Hope you are well.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

and another ..............

Many thanks conns.

Nothing on the airport or Wizz websites yet. Tomorrow?

The Wizz Air booking engine is now showing Bristol-Kosice (Slovakia) 2 x weekly (Tue and Sat) from October.

I didn't have that one at the top of my list for new Wizz routes although Ryanair's Bratislava route generated high load factors, but apparently not the required yield, and was axed. Kosice is in the eastern part of Slovakia.

All continuing good news for BRS.

To sum up Wizz will be operating Katowice (already), Kosice (apparently from October) and Oslo (from next March).

 

[tpm]

To sum up Wizz will be operating Katowice (already), Kosice (apparently from October) and Oslo (from next March).

Oslo? That's fantastic. Just missing Stockholm then 🙂

Now that easyjet fly to Vienna, Bratislava probably doesn't make so much sense any more, Vienna is too close and much better connected regionally.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

TheLocalYokel wrote:
To sum up Wizz will be operating Katowice (already), Kosice (apparently from October) and Oslo (from next March).

Oslo? That's fantastic. Just missing Stockholm then 🙂

Now that easyjet fly to Vienna, Bratislava probably doesn't make so much sense any more, Vienna is too close and much better connected regionally.

Well, you never know. Mr Freud might be correct yet, but it's more likely that Mr Dyslexia will hold sway with this one, although fortunately he's a very rare visitor to me. It's not the first time I've written Oslo when I meant Sofia though - those Os and Ss at the beginning I suppose.

Others I have to watch are Tehran and Tirana, and Dhaka/Dacca and Dakar.

You're right about Vienna and Bratislava. I don't know how many people used the Bratislava route to reach Austria or how many were Slovakia bound or origin. I mentioned Bratislava as some might raise their eyebrows at Kosice and wonder if anyone would want to fly there.

It's always good to have new routes and the suggestion of a poster elsewhere that Sofia was the first of a number of routes to be announced by Wizz might be along the right lines.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Excellent news for BRS and two interesting new routes.

Wizz do appear to be an airline that expand very quickly. In time I see no reason why BRS cannot match the 10 routes that DSA sees :smile:

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Katowice

July was the first calendar month of the service and CAA stats show that 4071 passengers used the route. It was 2 x weekly until 15 July when it increased to 3 x weekly.

The passenger numbers show an average load of 169.6 which is a load factor of 94.2% on the 180-seat A 320. For a new carrier on a new route (albeit one that was operated by Ryanair until the end of the winter before last) this must be very encouraging.

The other Polish routes from BRS don't seem to have been adversely affected either by the Wizz initiative.

Ryanair's Gdansk, Poznan and Rzeszow all had load factors just under 99% in July with the airline's Warsaw Modlin showing a load factor of 97.9%. easyJet's Krakow was slightly less full with 3725 passengers (no change on 2014) giving an average load of 143.3, load factor 91.9% on the 156-seat A 319.

 

[g9113324]

Re Bratislava: I have been flying there regularly over the past year and the planes are full of tourists en route to Vienna. I am not sure if they repeat the route after seeing Bratislava's train station, but the public transport from the airport is good and trains to Vienna frequent and fast.
Funnily, I have seen Bratislava appear at one airline's website as one of Vienna's airports (along with Schwechat). Forgot which airline, I think it was when I was looking up a flight from Geneva or Zurich to Vienna.

Re Kosice - Bristol: WizzAir's Kosice-Luton flights are full, but I am not sure if Bristol route will prosper as well. Tourists comprise only a small percentage of passengers on the Luton flight, the rest is Slovakians working in London, some having British friends and family visiting. Flights are very cheap, I saw one for 25 pounds.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Re Kosice - Bristol: WizzAir's Kosice-Luton flights are full, but I am not sure if Bristol route will prosper as well. Tourists comprise only a small percentage of passengers on the Luton flight, the rest is Slovakians working in London, some having British friends and family visiting. Flights are very cheap, I saw one for 25 pounds.

Looking at Doncaster-Sheffield/Kosice with Wizz in July the load factor seemed pretty good, nearly 90%.

The BRS catchment is wealthy and populous, both leisure and business, with a mass of eastern and middle Europeans living and working there. With over 6.5 million passengers a year in total at BRS compared with Doncaster-Sheffield's sub one million I would be disappointed if the route is not sustainable.

Funnily, I have seen Bratislava appear at one airline's website as one of Vienna's airports (along with Schwechat). Forgot which airline, I think it was when I was looking up a flight from Geneva or Zurich to Vienna.

It's the sort of thing Ryanair did. They used to suggest that Malmo in Sweden was an airport for Copenhagen in Denmark on the other side of the Oresund.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Below is a table showing the make up of the UK - Poland market for August 2015.

Unsurprisingly STN and LTN are top by quite a distance with approx 25% each, LHR is third with 8.6%

You then have Liverpool with it's large Ryanair presence at 6.6% and Doncaster with a large Wizz offering at 5.3%.

Of the rest Bristol is top at 4.7% with Glasgow just behind at 4.6%, Glasgow does have a new Wizz flight to Lublin starting soon.

EDI has 3.7% and LGW 3.2%.

BHX and MAN don't fare quite so well with BHX on 2.8% and MAN just behind on 2.6%, although BHX has a new Wizz flight to Warsaw starting in 2 weeks which will help.

I just thought the analysis was quite interesting and if Wizz are looking to encroach into Ryanairs market then BRS could well become one of the key battle grounds.

The article also makes an interesting read.

http://www.anna.aero/2015/08/14/ryanair ... st-market/

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Bristol's current Polish portfolio is Krakow (easyJet), Warsaw Modlin, Poznan, Wroclaw, Rzeszow, Gdansk (all Ryanair) and Katowice (Wizz Air). The last one only started in June (replacing a Ryanair route to Katowice) but the others are now well established over a number of years.

It's not all been plain sailing to Poland though.

easyJet pulled out of Warsaw Chopin in 2008 and the Polish capital was not replaced until 2012 when Ryanair began Warsaw Modlin. Intriguingly, in March 2010 Wizz Air announced it would serve Warsaw Chopin commencing in September that year but within a few weeks the route was pulled from the booking engine and didn't even begin.

Scezecin (Stettin) is another with a chequered history. Ryanair operated it in 2008 and 2009 before withdrawing only to return for summer 2013 after which it was axed again.

Lodz lasted two summers with Ryanair: 2012 and 2013. However, Bydgoszcz had the shortest tenure of a route actually commenced. Ryanair began it in May 2010, persevered though June but then abruptly axed the route. The average load in June was 135 (71% load factor), very poor by the usual standard of Ryanair's summer former Eastern Bloc routes from BRS, but to pull the route after only two months was something of a shock, especially to those who had already booked for the following months.

 

[Ray Finkle]

It does seem to be a trait with Ryanair as BHX has seen similar. Rzeszow and Szczecin were launched in 2008 and lasted a couple of years, Krakow has come and gone but looks settled at the moment (well as settled as one can be with Ryanair) and Gdansk has switched between summer only and year round, which it is at the moment. Warsaw was also dropped by Ryanair but thankfully Wizz have now taken it over.

Wizz do appear to be a little more consistent although it's still early days for them.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I'm departing somewhat from the Wizz thread but I have a list of at least 27 routes that Ryanair has started and then axed at BRS since 2007 when the base opened. Some of the routes have been re-started and some of the others are now operated by other airlines but it's a staggering number. In comparison easyJet has started and axed 12 routes since 2002 some of which have been re-started and some of the others now operated by other airlines.

As to Poland, I forgot that easyJet operated BRS to Gdansk in 2007 and 2008 before pulling out and being replaced by Ryanair in 2009.

I'm not so sure about the new Kosice route though. DSA had decent loads in July but that was peak summer. BRS should be able to at least match DSA but the route begins in October with the winter season not the most propitious. A spring start might have given it a better chance. Sofia starts then so I suppose Wizz knows what it's about far better than I do.

There is a big banner advertising Wizz to Katowice on the roundabout leading to the terminal at BRS, and I think I saw other adverts around the airport for this service too. There were certainly some on some First Bristol city buses when the Katowice route was announced. I haven't seen the same level of prominence given to the Kosice route. Sofia, I accept, is probably too far ahead to advertise in depth.

 

[Marko1]

Another new route appearing on wizz airs website - Warsaw Chopin !!!

 

[Severn]

Wizz Air announce Warsaw-Bristol flights in Summer '16

17/09/2015 - WIZZ AIR ANNOUNCES 6TH AIRCRAFT FOR WARSAW

The new aircraft will serve four new routes from Warsaw to Aberdeen, Bari, Bristol and Reykjavik.
Two of the A320s based in Warsaw will also be replaced with new larger A321 aircraft.
The link to the press release is below:
https://wizzair.com/en-GB/about_us/news/wizzen348

The new Warsaw-Bristol route will operate twice weekly on Wednesday and Sunday starting on the 13 May 2016