Wizz Air

[TheLocalYokel]

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

BRS-WAW

So, the first direct challenge to Ryanair by Wizz at BRS with FR's Warsaw Modlin service. It will be interesting to see how Ryanair responds.

 

[Marko1]

I wonder whether we may see a few more routes again in the near future from wizz. Someone in another forum referred to the number six plus Katowice so we shall wait and see .

As for ryanair they seem to talk the talk but do not walk the walk . They promise to be the biggest airline at Bristol then cut Ibiza and Bergerac. I wonder whether following birminghams strategy of reaching out to multiple airlines rather than relying on ryanair for growth. I rather fancy a monarch base or maybe Norwegian or vueling. I guess we shall have to wait and see

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Ryanair has certainly stagnated at BRS for the past several years.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

August to Katowice

CAA stats show 4420 passengers used the route in August which is an average load of 170, load factor of 94.4%, almost identical figures to July.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

BRS-WAW

No publicity blurb on the BRS website about this route that was announced a couple of weeks ago. The other new Wizz routes were given publicity there when announced.

Might be a bit tricky I suppose for the airport to be too gung ho about it bearing in mind that Ryanair flies to Modlin.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Kosice

This route commences today and the seat selector suggests that the loads won't be as good this weekend as the Katowice route was from the off (over 94% load factor for the first two months of its existence -July and August).

The inbound currently shows 153 seats taken (85% lf) whereas the outbound from BRS is only 126 (70% lf).

The next flight is on Tuesday with the figures currently 135 seats taken inbound and 119 outbound although hopefully more will be taken before Tuesday.

As a comparison the next Katowice rotation is on Monday with at the moment 169 (93.9% lf) seats taken for the inbound and 145 (80.5%) for the outbound.

I suppose that August is always likely to generate more leisure/VFR passengers than October on most routes.

 

[NOSIGWX]

The new Wizz Sofia route is now starting on January 11th. Makes sense as Bulgaria is a popular winter sports destination.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Advertising for Wizz Routes

I notice that the big Wizz Air banner advertisement sited at the roundabout on the airport approach road still only mentions the first Wizz route to commence (Katowice). No mention of Kosice (also now operating), Sofia (commences in January) or Warsaw (commences next spring).

The airport's own website's home page only mentions Kosice and Sofia as new Wizz routes. Warsaw isn't mentioned at all.

Bearting in mind that Wizz were going to begin Warsaw from BRS in 2010, but axed it before it even started, it might be thought that it could do with as much publicity as it can get. Perhaps particularly so because Ryanair operates to its version of Warsaw at Modlin.

I'm surprised at this because BRS is usually so good at advertising its wares.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

October 2015

The Kosice route (Sat and Tue) commenced on 10 October and carried 1966 passengers. This was an average load of just over 140.4, load factor 78%.

Katowice carried 3717 passengers, average load 154.9, a load factor of 86%. KTW's previous three full months saw load factors of 94.4% in both July and August and 89.7% in September.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Advertising Wizz routes

I notice that the big Wizz Air banner advertisement sited at the roundabout on the airport approach road still only mentions the first Wizz route to commence (Katowice). No mention of Kosice (also now operating), Sofia (commences in January) or Warsaw (commences next spring).

The airport's own website's home page only mentions Kosice and Sofia as new Wizz routes. Warsaw isn't mentioned at all.

Bearting in mind that Wizz were going to begin Warsaw from BRS in 2010, but axed it before it even started, it might be thought that it could do with as much publicity as it can get. Perhaps particularly so because Ryanair operates to its version of Warsaw at Modlin.

I'm surprised at this because BRS is usually so good at advertising its wares.

I was at the airport today and noticed that the big Wizz banner dvertisement sited at the roundabout on the airport approach road has been amended to show Kosice, Sofia and Warsaw as well as Katowice. The large Wizz advertisement on the wall inside the terminal next to the large railway station-type departure board now also mentions all four routes.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The Kosice route (Sat and Tue) commenced on 10 October and carried 1966 passengers. This was an average load of just over 140.4, load factor 78%.

Katowice carried 3717 passengers, average load 154.9, a load factor of 86%. KTW's previous three full months saw load factors of 94.4% in both July and August and 89.7% in September.

November 2015

On the face of it, disappointing figures for the month on the two Wizz routes.

Katowice - 2543 passengers, average load 141.3, load factor 78.5%

Kosice- 1756 passengers, average load 109.8, load factor 61%

Ryanair's eastern European routes seem to have significantly higher load factors than Wizz in November.

At least the next couple of Bristol-Kosice sectors are well loaded according to the seat selector that currently shows three empty seats for Saturday and 16 for Tuesday. The Kosice-Bristol sectors are not so good but still much better than the average for November.

Presumably people going home to Slovakia for Christmas.

 

[Ray Finkle]

That seems a very similar position to Wizz at BHX. Budapest and Warsaw have both seen loads in the late 80's or early 90's but November saw them fall to 75% and 79% respectively.

BHX-Poznan started yesterday and although the first two outbound flights are 100% sold out the inbound legs looked very light indeed, although it does seem to pick up into the new year. This seems a similar situation to Bristol-Kosice.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I noted from the BHX forum that the seat selector is indicating very good loads on the Wizz Polish routes in and out of BHX tomorrow so I thought I'd have a look at the BRS situation.

The Katowice route tomorrow is full inbound and 89% outbound. The Kosice route on Tuesday is 96.5% inbound and 85.5% outbound. Kosice seemed to be struggling a bit in November so this is better news. Next Saturday's Kosice is currently 84% inbound and 71% outbound although the outbound fares still available are very low, perhaps raising questions over yield.

Sofia begins on 11 January and the seat selector is showing 83% inbound and 71% outbound although there is still just over a week before the service begins.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I notice that some of the Flyer buses are now displaying large advertisements across the rear of the vehicles for Wizz and its flights to Katowice, Kosice, Sofia and Warsaw Chopin.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Wizz announced new routes from BHX and LPL today. Given today's news about the excellent year that BRS has enjoyed with overall passenger numbers for 2015 approaching 6.8 million and 2016 expected to see in excess of 7 million, it must be hoped that Wizz will also look to the South West with new routes.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Sofia

The new 2 x weekly service (Mon and Thur) begins this evening.

The seat selector is currently showing 174 seats (96.7% load factor) taken on the inbound and 138 (76.7%) on the outbound.

Thursday is currently showing a load factor of 93.9% on the inbound and 73.3% on the outbound.

Kosice seems to be continuing its improvement with over 97% (in) and over 83% (out) shown for last Saturday and currently 90.5% (in) and 71.1% (out) for tomorrow.

 

[Marko1]

That is some good figures. Good to see Kosice growing and Sofia starting off well . I would have thought we would have seen a few more routes from wizz by now .

 

[TheLocalYokel]

That is some good figures. Good to see Kosice growing and Sofia starting off well . I would have thought we would have seen a few more routes from wizz by now .

Maybe this is part of the 'lots in the pipeline' which has been said currently applies to BRS.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Kosice seems to be continuing to build after a slow start in early winter.

Seat selector shows that Bristol-Kosice on Saturday is currently 87.7% with the inbound at 96.6%.

Bristol-Katowice tomorrow is 86.1% with the inbound at 91.6%.

Sofia seems to have started well. Next flights are on Monday and at this stage seat selector shows Bristol-Sofia at 81.1% with the inbound at 86.6%

 

[TheLocalYokel]

December 2015

CAA stats for December show that 2372 passengers used the Bristol-Katowice route (Mondays and Fridays). With no rotation on Christmas Day (a Friday) I make it seven rotations (14 sectors) in the month. This gives an average load of 169.4, load factor 94.1%.

Since the route began in July the monthly load factors have been:
July 94.4%
August 94.4%
September 89.7%
October 86%
November 78.5%
December 94.1%

2464 passengers used the Bristol-Kosice route (Tuesdays and Saturdays). This amounts to 9 rotations (18 sectors) giving an average load of 136.9, load factor 76%. This is a significant improvement of November's 61% load factor and it seems that January has started well.

Since the route began on 10 October the monthly load factors have been:

October 78%
November 61%
December 76%