Wizz Air

[mathers_wales_uk]

In 2007 is remember with the three based bmibaby aircraft they used to operate 8 sectors a day per aircraft and would operate something along these lines during Summer months.

Aircraft 1 - Belfast / Spain / Belfast / Spain
Aircraft 2 - Edinburgh / Spain / Edinburgh / Spain

I know aircraft 3 used to go to Spin 1st thing in the morning then I believe did the Amsterdam service It may have did another Spanish route or another short route before doing a late Spanish route.

Obviously with the length of sectors on offer this may not be feasible and the capacity available may not make a business friendly schedule feasible for now if the demand is there.

I do however believe the leisure / VFR market could be there initially and the capacity of the A321 would blow out of the water the available capacity in Belfast and Edinburgh operated by Eastern & Loganair respectively.

 

[Pontyboy]

Belfast international and Grenoble are certainly good additions to the route network, if they do come to fruition.

I think there are some points worth mentioning here.
- wizz are a completely different beast to eastern and Loganair. Both on capacity and fares.
- just look at what Ryanair are achieving load wise on a 3 weekly Dublin service. Not ideal but loads are good.
- Flybe operated double and sometimes triple on Belfast, albeit from city airport. Flybe operated a dash 8 and the e-195. Loads were very good even with Flybe charging less competitively than a LCC.
- Wizz would undoubtably stimulate the market and bring back Welsh pax to CWL and may even compete to a scale that may entice pax originating in England to the airport. At the moment that is something that eastern and loganair can’t do.
- Eastern and Loganair are more a hindrance than a benefit. Yes they are providing a link to Scotland and Northern Ireland but at what expense? So many people totally disregard their offering purely based on price. How many welsh pax now see Bristol as their airport of choice and don’t even think about Cardiff.
- customers like value for money. Wizz would offer that.

If the airport were able to get Wizz to operate Belfast it would be a big positive step forward. The market is definitely there for Wizz.

 

[geoff]

I see Wizz are operating a flight to Belfast on Friday 4th, must be the Cardiff rugby team playing Ulster, they must be taking a lot of supporters with them. Perhaps they want to show Northern Ireland their aircraft. Belfast was previously mentioned in the report above on Feb 5th.

 

[Jerry]

I see Wizz are operating a flight to Belfast on Friday 4th, must be the Cardiff rugby team playing Ulster, they must be taking a lot of supporters with them. Perhaps they want to show Northern Ireland their aircraft. Belfast was previously mentioned in the report above on Feb 5th.

I can't see there being fans onboard due to Covid. Most likely be just the team.

 

[Jerry]

Cardiff Airport could welcome thousands of Ukrainian refugees​

Cardiff Airport could welcome thousands of Ukrainian refugees | ITV News

Ukrainian airline Wizz Air, which operates in and out of Cardiff, has offered 100,000 free tickets to refugees. | ITV News Wales

www.itv.com

 

[Tinkerman]

The GNB flight this weekend and the BFS last weekend explains those that appeared briefly in the booking system … Nothing to see here.

 

[Jerry]

From April we'll be seeing these on a regular basis. Hopefully we'll one day get to see the 1st photo regularly as well. A320 parked on stand 10 and A321neo on stand 9.
View media item 16431
View media item 16426
View media item 16434

 

[MrFenner]

It appears as though W9 are strategically adding flights into their booking engine to encompass the October half-term school holidays!

Flights loaded are for w/c 31 October 2022 to ALC, TFS, FAO and LCA.

All we need now is a full winter schedule beyond ACE & SSH…

 

[CWL94]

It looks like they might need to do a little tweaking because on the 1st November they currently have ALC, FAO and SSH operating, one of them will have to be moved to accommodate SSH

 

[Tinkerman]

That’s an encouraging sign … Some of the fares have seemingly tailed off a bit as of late on the Wizz calendar, but hoping that they have a semi-successful first Summer season in a new market for them.

CWL’s eggs (all of them) are in the W9 basket to achieve growth (and to be a success)!

The marketing front has gone a bit quiet as of late …

 

[Jerry]

Looking at Wizz website and it looks like they are loading up winter 2022/23. Nothing is onsale (except Sharm el Shiekh and Lanzarote) as the flights come up Sold Out but it looks like it could look like this.
Larnaca 2 weekly Thursday and Sunday until 12/2/23
Sharm el Sheikh 2 weekly Tuesday and Saturday
Faro 2 weekly Tuesday and Saturday
Alicante 2 weekly Tuesday and Saturday until 11/2/23
Lanzarote 3 weekly Monday, Wednesday and Friday
Tenerife 3 weekly Monday, Wednesday and Friday until 13/2/23

Flight schedule looks a bit like this
Monday 0605 Lanzarote 16.20 Tenerife
Tuesday 12.10 Alicante 13.15 Sharm el Sheikh 18.25 Faro
Wednesday 0605 Lanzarote 16.20 Tenerife
Thursday 14.15 Larnaca
Friday 0605 Lanzarote 16.20 Tenerife
Saturday 12.10 Alicante 13.15 Sharm el Sheikh 18.25 Faro
Sunday 14.15 Larnaca

What is interesting is that on Tuesday and Saturday 2 aircraft would be needed but i expect that will change so only 1 aircraft is needed.

 

[Tinkerman]

That’s a good spot Jerry, and those aren’t on the App yet.

I’m guessing as you say, it will reduce down to 1 aircraft as SSH and ACE have been on-sale for a while so I guess they just need to re-schedule with these additions to make it fit.

A good commitment from Wizz to continue into the Winter - Let’s get a successful Summer 2022 through the door and look forward to 2023 (To me, it appears as though more proactive marketing from CWL’s social media outlets is required).

 

[Jerry]

I’m guessing as you say, it will reduce down to 1 aircraft as SSH and ACE have been on-sale for a while so I guess they just need to re-schedule with these additions to make it fit.

I expect that one of Faro or Alicante might get shifted to Thursdays and Sundays

 

[CWL94]

it is now showing on the app until mid feb like Jerry said in the previous post albeit not bookabke as of yet!

I also agree that either FAO or ALC will get moved to Thursdays and Sunday to operate before SSH

 

[MrFenner]

Looks like W22/23 is being loaded into the system (up to mid Feb):

• TFS 3 x weekly (M,W,F)
• LCA 2 x weekly (Th+Su)
• SSH 2 x weekly (Tu+Sa) - all winter season
• FAO 2 x weekly (Tu+Sa)
• ALC 2 x weekly (Tu+Sa)
• ACE 3 x weekly (M,W,F) - all winter season

As you can see there's lots of gaps to fill...so fingers crossed at least a little bit of winter skiing to be added!



All subject to change of course as it seems there's too many rotations on Tuesdays and Saturdays for just 1 based aircraft.

 

[CWL94]

If ALC or FAO moves to Thursday and Sunday, I can’t see any gaps for anything additional as that would make it 2 rotations a day for the 7 days!

 

[MrFenner]

If ALC or FAO moves to Thursday and Sunday, I can’t see any gaps for anything additional as that would make it 2 rotations a day for the 7 days!

Oh absolutely spot-on! Those simple moves would create a full schedule indeed.

Just seems silly putting flights on sale for specific days to then email passengers and change it to a different day (or cancel it altogether) - but I'm sure Wizz know what they're doing...

 

[CWL94]

Personally and it’s only my option I do worry about FAO in the winter and would have preferred a different destination maybe a GVA like you mentioned or even LPA, DLM which are being offered from DSA

 

[MrFenner]

Looks like W22/23 is being loaded into the system (up to mid Feb):

• TFS 3 x weekly (M,W,F)
• LCA 2 x weekly (Th+Su)
• SSH 2 x weekly (Tu+Sa) - all winter season
• FAO 2 x weekly (Tu+Sa)
• ALC 2 x weekly (Tu+Sa)
• ACE 3 x weekly (M,W,F) - all winter season

As you can see there's lots of gaps to fill...so fingers crossed at least a little bit of winter skiing to be added!



All subject to change of course as it seems there's too many rotations on Tuesdays and Saturdays for just 1 based aircraft.

My sincere apologies Jerry, I didn’t realise you’d posted this last night!

Didn’t mean to tread on your toes…

 

[Tinkerman]

All flights now appear to be onsale with an A321.

Therefore guessing that the current ACE and SSH will also be upgraded to an A321.