Wizz Air

[Mackadown spotter]

Summer 2024 !

 

[lbaspotter]

Overnight it looks like Wizz Air have removed from sale it's 3 Polish routes from Birmingham to Krakow, Warsaw & Wroclaw for summer 2024.

Leaves just the follow 11x weekly services on 4+ routes for summer 2024

Budapest= 2x weekly (Mon & Sat)
Bucharest = 5x weekly (Mon, Wed-Fri & Sun)
Cluj Napoca = 2x weekly (Wed & Sun)
Craiova = 2x weekly (Tue & Sat)

 

[whateverg]

Very disappointing

 

[Mackadown spotter]

Cluj Napoca Now not on sale for summer 2024

 

[whateverg]

Appreciate that Wizz has got some engine issues which is limiting capacity but I was under the impression these were pretty strong and well-established routes. Has anyone got some insider info as to what's going with Wizz at BHX?

 

[route66]

Appreciate that Wizz has got some engine issues which is limiting capacity but I was under the impression these were pretty strong and well-established routes. Has anyone got some insider info as to what's going with Wizz at BHX?

Gone from Liverpool as well. A declining market post Brexit/Covid.

 

[whateverg]

Not sure the market would've declined so much. Ryanair have only been increasing frequency on BHX-KRK

 

[HPsauce]

Gone from Liverpool as well. A declining market post Brexit/Covid.

I find that hard to believe. There are a great many Poles working in Birmingham who regularly go ' home' to see family.

 

[lbaspotter]

Bucharest now also reduced from 5x to 4x weekly.

 

[DarloPlaneBoy]

Do Wizz possibly have financial issues caused by these Engine Issues so they are having to scrap routes. Seems strange as Birmingham to Poland would have a fair bit of demand. But maybe the war in Ukraine is having an affect with it being so close to Poland

 

[gulftraveller]

I doubt the war in Ukraine will have any effect on VFR traffic. Poland remains safe. The Polish community in UK does appear to be shrinking but I wonder also whether Wizz is trying is gradually trying to move away from from the gastarbeiter market to look at higher yield markets.

 

[rollo]

Reported today in the financial press Wizz traffic in January up 14% but load factors down to 82%. Passengers carried just over 4 million

For comparison Ryanair passenger increase up 3%, load factor up to 89%, load factor up to over 89%. Passengers carried over 14 million.

Ryanair post profit in last quarter, Wizz ? and there share price despite rising yesterday is still down by a third over the last 12 months.

 

[Aviador]

Do Wizz possibly have financial issues caused by these Engine Issues so they are having to scrap routes. Seems strange as Birmingham to Poland would have a fair bit of demand. But maybe the war in Ukraine is having an affect with it being so close to Poland

The airline has been fully compensated by the engine manufacture for the engine problems. The war in Ukraine probably hasn't impacted them significantly.

 

[TM3]

Refreshingly no-one has put this down to Brexit.

Are these markets not now just reaching the maximum number of seats for demand, such that passengers have a good enough choice to gravitate to their local airports?

Wizz are now operating A321neos configured to 239 seats, which is now approaching some widebody configs (abeit those with premium seats). When Ryanair introduced the MAX with 189 seats this was already considered to be quite a lot of seats at the time.

Wizz have also grown massively at LTN which eats into BHX's cachement for budget flights, however these destinations are already sufficiently served from BHX IMO.

 

[Aviador]

Refreshingly no-one has put this down to Brexit.

Ah forgot about that. You mean our act of self halm....

 

[Paulsstrange]

Refreshing it was, and then there are those still bitter dear oh dear get over it !

 

[gulftraveller]

Refreshing it was, and then there are those still bitter dear oh dear get over it !

You should address this to UK airlines. They might not agree with you. It is also the main reason why the gastarbeiter population is decreasing, leading to diminishing returns for Wizz Air.

 

[Brum X]

Ah forgot about that. You mean our act of self halm....

Yeah what a load of BREXS-IT

 

[route66]

Refreshingly no-one has put this down to Brexit.

Are these markets not now just reaching the maximum number of seats for demand, such that passengers have a good enough choice to gravitate to their local airports?

Wizz are now operating A321neos configured to 239 seats, which is now approaching some widebody configs (abeit those with premium seats). When Ryanair introduced the MAX with 189 seats this was already considered to be quite a lot of seats at the time.

Wizz have also grown massively at LTN which eats into BHX's cachement for budget flights, however these destinations are already sufficiently served from BHX IMO.

I did mention Brexit in #726.

 

[nwoody2001]

It has everything to do with (but not exclusively because of...) Brexit - Pax levels between the UK and Eastern Europe has continued to fall ever over those very 4 years since Brexit came into force....

Of the 5 largest Eastern European populations in the UK, pax levels between 4/5 are down, with growth only seen in 1/5 (Romania)... a comparison of Feb 2019 and Feb 2023 being a casing point.

UK– Poland (Feb 2019): 598,000 pax
UK – Poland (Feb 2023): 573,000 pax (Down -4.2%)

UK– Romania (Feb 2019): 226,000 pax
UK – Romania (Feb 2023): 254,000 pax (Up +12.4%)

UK– Lithuania (Feb 2019): 88,000 pax
UK – Lithuania (Feb 2023): 74,000 pax (Down -16.0%)

UK– Bulgaria (Feb 2019): 131,000 pax
UK – Bulgaria (Feb 2023): 126,000 pax (Down -3.8%)

UK– Hungary (Feb 2019): 171,000 pax
UK – Hungary (Feb 2023): 143,000 pax (Down -16.4%)

Matter of fact, since Brexit Pax levels between UK and eastern Europe are slowly dropping. Yes Covid will play a role, as will the Ukraine war, but pax levels had already started to drop before the start of the Ukraine War. As for Covid, both Poland and Hungary have aviation capacity higher than 2019 levels, but both have a significant drop in UK pax levels.