Birmingham: Wizz Air Flights, New Routes & Schedule Updates

[thunderchild]

Warsaw and Budapest are also A321 IIRC?

 

[Ray Finkle]

Sofia is the first route to become bookable for W17/18.

It remains 3x weekly on an A321.

Tue, Thur and Sat

SOF 17:45 BHX 19:15
BHX 19:50 SOF 00:55

 

[Ray Finkle]

Budapest now bookable for winter, still up to 3x weekly Tue, Thur and Sat.

BUD 18:00 BHX 19:45
BHX 20:20 BUD 23:50

 

[Ray Finkle]

The BUD winter schedule is 3x weekly over the peak period with 2x weekly either side, so the same as this winter.

Some cracking loads today.

Outbound to Budapest has only 5 seats remaining, I was too late for the inbound loads.

The first A321 on Sofia is sold out inbound with just one remaining seat back out.

Poznan has one seat left inbound and one seat left outbound.

Looking ahead to Monday and Bucharest has just two seats left inbound and three outbound.

Wroclaw loads look the lightest with ten empty seats both ways, that's still a 95% lf though.

 

[nwoody2001]

...cmon Wizz, you appear to be doing well at BHX ...when will you expand more???

 

[Brum X]

...cmon Wizz, you appear to be doing well at BHX ...when will you expand more???

I would expect there glitzy new LTN base will take priority for them now. BHX may need to be patient until we see more expansion but i think it will come, probably towards the end of 2017.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Bucharest is now bookable for winter and the good news is that it's upgraded to an A321 🙂

The schedule is the same as this winter, 2x weekly with extra flights added over the main holiday period.

 

[Ray Finkle]

The rest of our routes are now bookable into winter. Warsaw is showing as 3x weekly on an A321 (it could drop to 2x weekly before then), Poznan remains 2x weekly (Tue and Sat) as does Wroclaw (Fri and Mon). I'll do the full schedule later this evening.


Bucharest goes 3x weekly from the end of this week switching to Tue, Thur and Sat. It makes OTP 7x weekly overall with Blue Air going 4x weekly.


As I'm on the website here are some seats maps.

Tonight

Birmingham to Bucharest 179 99% (one seat left)
Birmingham to Wroclaw 157 87%

Tomorrow's Warsaw load factors are currently late 80's, Budapest is 93% in and 95% out, these will likely change further as the last remaining passengers check in.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Wizz are using an A321 from Bucharest today.

I think it may be the first time that we've had 2x Wizz A321's in at the same time with HA-LXF from Warsaw and HA-LXE from Bucharest?

 

[nwoody2001]

Healthy loads too?

 

[Seasider]

Wizz are using an A321 from Bucharest today.

I think it may be the first time that we've had 2x Wizz A321's in at the same time with HA-LXF from Warsaw and HA-LXF from Bucharest?

It was a combined flight then 😗

 

[Ray Finkle]

Healthy loads too?

I was too late to see the seat maps but Bucharest is pretty much sold out for the rest of the week.

It was a combined flight then 😗

Now fixed

 

[Matt995]

possible expansion at BHX for Wizzair next year? :-


Wizz Air soars to record profits as Brexit effect fails to materialise

25 MAY 2017 • 12:21PM

Low cost airline Wizz Air plans to increase its capacity by almost a quarter in the next year as it says the Brexit referendum has not dampened demand for flights to and from the UK.

The Budapest-based airline, which specialises in flights to and from central and eastern Europe, carried 23.8 million passengers in the year to March 31, up from 20 million during the year before.

During the year it opened 113 new routes, including 10 outside its core region. The company said it plans to increase capacity by a further 23pc over the next year in order to carry almost 30 million passengers annually.

Pre-tax profits for the group were €255.8m, 27pc higher than the previous year, while revenues were up 9.9pc to €1.57bn.

The results are a boon for the carrier, which in February warned that profits were likely to be €20m lower after severe winter weather and rising costs began to bite.

The company had faced an unexpected €5m cost over the winter due to delayed flights and cancellations amid extreme weather in its core markets in Poland, Hungary and the Baltic states where airports shut down due to storms.

But a boom in activity in the rest of the year pushed profits to record levels for the 12 month period.

Shares in the company jumped 10.3pc on Thursday to £21.47, making it one of the best performers in the FTSE 250.

Wizz Air said on Thursday that there were "no signs of demand weakness" on routes to or from the UK, despite fears that the UK’s vote to leave the European Union would deter travellers.

Although the weakness in sterling hit its revenues by €17m, this was absorbed by “the rest of Wizz Air's large and diversified route network,” it said.

József Váradi, Wizz Air's chief executive, said he was pleased that the company had reported growth in profits against “a trading environment of very low fares and increasing fuel prices”.

“We continue to drive our cost base lower to maintain one of the highest profit margins of any European carrier,” he added.

The airline is due to open a new base at London’s Luton Airport next month with three new routes to to Tel Aviv in Israel, Prishtina in Kosovo and Kutaisi in Georgia.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Riga please!

If we can get Lublin and Iasi too that'd be great 👍

 

[Ray Finkle]

Summer 18 is starting to go on sale, so far just Sofia available staying 3x weekly on an A321.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Budapest now showing for S18 and it's back up to 3x weekly.

I can't check what aircraft will be used as for the first two weeks of sale it's only open to Wizz Discount Club members.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Bucharest is also back up to 3x weekly for summer but similar to BUD I can't check the aircraft type yet.

Whilst I was there I looked at tomorrows loads from the seat maps.

Warsaw to Birmingham 98% A321

Birmingham to Warsaw 98% A321

Sofia to Birmingham 92% A321

Birmingham to Sofia 99% A321

Budapest to Birmingham 90% A320

Birmingham to Budapest 97% A320

Poznan to Birmingham 94% A320

Birmingham to Poznan 92% A320

Bucharest to Birmingham Sold Out A320

Birmingham to Bucharest 93% A320

Apart from the inbound Budapest (14 seats) the remaining number of seats are all in single figures. I know we've seen a couple of frequency increases and a few upgrades to the A321 but with numbers like those (which are consistent) it really makes you wonder what we have to do to get a couple more routes.

 

[58terminus]

really makes you wonder what we have to do to get a couple more routes.

Wait for Brexit to be sorted i'm afraid.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Warsaw and Sofia are particularly impressive, filling A321's when there is direct competition from Ryanair who also know how to get bums on seats.

Bucharest is also impressive given the competition from Blue Air, who incidentally filled a 738 to/from OTP today. It's usually sold out so no wonder we'll be seeing an A321 from October.

I think Budapest could do with a little competition. I'd like to see either Jet2 or Monarch give it a go, maybe on a Mon and Fri to target the city break market.

Poznan and Wroclaw are ticking over nicely.

I guess with other airports losing Wizz routes or seeing frequency cuts we should think ourselves lucky that we are actually seeing small increases 🙂

 

[Ray Finkle]

Bucharest sees the A321 continue into summer at 3x weekly.

A nice increase in capacity 🙂