Wizz Air

[superking]

wiz announced routes Saturday and quite a few. but there was no new routes to any british airports.

 

[Jerry]

Yeah i think they said just after the referendum resuly they were going to be cautious with the UK? Not sure how big there base is but i'm surprised they don't do Prague more to UK destinations.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Yeah i think they said just after the referendum resuly they were going to be cautious with the UK? Not sure how big there base is but i'm surprised they don't do Prague more to UK destinations.

So far as BRS is concerned, a glance through the Wizz base list doesn't throw up much that might be thought 'goers'.

Belgrade
Bucharest - Ryanair about to commence this route
Budapest - already operated by Ryanair
Chisinau
Cluj
Craiova
Debrecen
Gdansk - already operated by Ryanair
Iasi
Katowice - already operated by Wizz
Kosice - already operated by Wizz
Kutaisi
Kyiv
Lubin
Poznan - already operated by Ryanair
Prague - already operated by easyJet
Riga
Sibiu
Skopje
Sofia - already operated by Wizz
Targu Mores
Timisoara
Tuzia
Vilnius - Ryanair already operates to Kaunas and I doubt there is room for two Lithuanian routes
Warsaw Chopin - already operated by Wizz with Ryanir on Warsaw Modlin
Wroclaw - already operated by Ryanair

Perhaps the obvious one is Riga. Ryanair used to operate BRS-RIX; it's one of the BRS routes it axed despite very good load factors, something I touched on this evening in the BRS Ryanair thread. Wizz picked up Katowice after Ryanair dropped it despite extremely high load factors.

Then again I wouldn't have pointed to Kosice were it not already being operated by Wizz, so perhaps there are one or two others that appear unlikely but might be tried.

 

[Jerry]

It looks like that if they introduce more routes to BRS then they will be introducing ones already flown by other airlines unless they gamble with a route that might not succeed.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It looks like that if they introduce more routes to BRS then they will be introducing ones already flown by other airlines unless they gamble with a route that might not succeed.

Riga has a proven market. It's a case of making of making it work for an airline.

Wizz came onto Warsaw with Ryanair already operating, albeit to different airports (and loads on both airlines have been extremely high), so they've shown they will challenge an incumbent, although I wonder if any of the other existing routes would stand two operators; possibly Budapest where easyJet operated daily at one point before being replaced by Ryanair now 3 x weekly.

That said, Ryanair has challenged easyJet on Krakow from this summer and passenger figures have burgeoned with high load factors on both; easyJet challenged Ryanair on Venice also from this summer (different airports but Ryanair has now switched from Treviso to Marco Polo to take on easyJet directly) and, again, loads on both airlines are extremely high. We don't know the yields, the important figures, of course.

 

[Jerry]

Sounds like the demand is there to support more than one airline on these routes but like you said are the airlines making money from them? Guess only time will tell with that.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

CAA stats August and September 2016

August

Katowice 4486 passengers, average load 172.5, load factor 95.8%
Warsaw Chopin 3103, 172.4, 95.7%
Sofia 2725, 170.3, 94.6%
Kosice 3076, 170.9, 94.9%

September

Katowice 3554, 136.7, 75.9%
Warsaw Chopin 2522, 157.6, 87.6%
Sofia 2814, 156.3, 86.8%
Kosice 2835,157.5 87%

I'm not sure they've got Katowice right in September, unless there was a cancellation one day.

The summer load factors from April through to September are chronologically:

Katowice 86.2, 87.0, 90.8, 93.8, 95.8, 75.9
Sofia 82.8, 84.2, 87.0, 90.3, 94.6, 86.8
Kosice 77.7, 84.7, 91.4, 92.1, 94.9, 87.0
Warsaw Chopin* 87.2, 89.5, 96.0, 95.7, 87.6

* WAW didn't begin until May

Very good load factors in the main. Yield? Only the airline will know.

 

[Marko1]

Wizz have released their winter 2017/18 schedule to Sofia. Twice a week

 

[andrewgreen]

Isn't that the same as this winter ?

 

[Marko1]

Yes no change

 

[Marko1]

Wizz has launched all their winter flights from Bristol for 17/18. Nothing changed although no appearance of kosice. Other uk services to kosice have been all sale for a little while so I hope it has not been dropped. Wizz has been very stagnant since their rapid launch of routes.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Wizz has launched all their winter flights from Bristol for 17/18. Nothing changed although no appearance of kosice. Other uk services to kosice have been all sale for a little while so I hope it has not been dropped. Wizz has been very stagnant since their rapid launch of routes.

Kosice did struggle for loads at first but it seemed to develop into a very good performer in the summer. Maybe it's going to be summer-only.

 

[Marko1]

Kosice appears to be dropped from July. Disappointing

 

[superking]

Kosice appears to be dropped from July. Disappointing

is this due to load factors.?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

is this due to load factors.?

Last summer the monthly load factors from May to September on Kosice were respectively 84.7%, 91.4%, 92.1%, 94.9%, 87%. Load factors seemed ok then so either the yield was sub-standard or forward bookings this summer are falling short, or perhaps a combination of both.

BRS doesn't have much luck with Slovakia because Ryanair ditched Bratislava after summer 2013 when load factors were in the 90s% each month that summer (and in previous ones). I thought that Kosice was rather surprising when it was announced.

Addendum

It looks as though Kosice actually finishes on 19 June and that BRS is being replaced with a route to Tel Aviv from 23 June.

Kosice is a small airport in terms of passenger numbers - just over 400,000 a year - but it has a 3,100 metre runway. As far as I know Kosice is a Wizz base but it only has Wizz flights to Luton, Doncaster-Sheffield and Bristol/Tel Aviv.

 

[andrewgreen]

With the recent good results announced by Wizzair and the statement of Growth being their top priority for 2018 planning to grow by 23% ! Surely Bristol is well placed to grab some of this but what would be most likely ? an increase of frequency on existing routes or new ?

 

[Jerry]

an increase of frequency on existing routes or new ?

According to Wiki they have a new base opening in Varna in from 21st July. With the Bulgarian black sea coast a popular tourist destination for beach holidays then maybe they could look at that?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I'm not sure that Wizz will do much more at BRS in the foreseeable future. Kosice is to cease very soon and Katowice, the original Wizz route at BRS, is only operating 2 x weekly until 22 June this year when it returns to last summer's frequency of 3 x weekly which operated for the whole of the summer 2016 season.

I thought also that one or two of the routes were being upgraded to A321 from last winter but that doesn't seem to have happened.

Looking at Luton, Wizz's busiest UK airport by a considerable margin, shows that the airline operates these routes from there. Some are already operated by Wizz or other airlines at BRS (marked with * - in addition Burgas is a charter route) and at first glance there doesn't seem to be that much else jumping out at me that might be considered for BRS.

Belgrade, Brno, Bucharest*, Budapest*, Burgas, Chișinău, Cluj–Napoca, Constanța, Craiova, Debrecen, Gdańsk*, Iași, Katowice*, Kaunas*, Košice, Kutaisi, Kyiv-Zhuliany, Ljubljana, Lublin, Ohrid, Olsztyn, Palanga, Poprad-Tatry, Poznań*, Prague*, Pristina, Riga, Satu Mare, Sibiu, Skopje, Sofia*, Suceava, Szczecin, Târgu Mureș, Tel Aviv, Timișoara, Tuzla, Varna, Vilnius, Warsaw–Chopin*, Wrocław*, Split*.

Belgrade, Riga and possibly Szczecin (Stettin) might be possibilities. I would also have said Vilnius but Ryanair already flies to Kaunas and I'm not sure there is room for two Lithuanian routes at BRS.

Belgrade has never been tried from BRS before as a regular scheduled route but in the light of Ryanair's apparent successful Bucharest could be a consideration.

Ryanair tried Riga from 2007 till early 2012 and attracted excellent load factors but, as with other axed routes at BRS and elsewhere, they weren't enough to satisfy Ryanair.

The same applies to Szczecin which Ryanair operated in 2008 and 2009 and in 2013 and 2014. Loads there were very good but not always in the 90%+ load factor that Ryanair normally sees on its eastern European routes, including those at BRS, although as I said in the previous paragraph even loads of this volume don't always mean that Ryanair will keep them.

Would easyJet take on Ryanair on other routes at BRS as it has done with Warsaw, with Ryanair operating to Modlin and Wizz to Chopin? Budapest or one of the other Polish routes might stand some competition.

I was surprised that Wizz has reduced Katowice for the early part of this summer, otherwise I might have been tempted to suggest some small increases in frequency on Sofia and/or Warsaw Chopin in the peak summer months, say July, August and early September.

 

[Marko1]

Wizz hav started releasing their summer 2018 . Sofia now on sale , similar to this year 2-3 times per week

 

[Marko1]

Last flight to kosice departs tonight.