Wizz Air

[Marko1]

What this does show us though is that brs can only rely on 3 airlines to provide growth - easyJet tui and tcx. Ryanair unreliable. Bmi not sure what they are doing wizz and wow disappearing klm not doing much ... for all it's over reliance at least easyJet will provide significant growth next year.

 

[andrewgreen]

Tonights Wizz flight from Sofia is being operated by an A321 , is that the first time ?

 

[Marko1]

Ironic seeing they are dropping the route soon

 

[andrewgreen]

My thoughts to ! when does it actually finish ?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

My thoughts to ! when does it actually finish ?

Sofia and Warsaw Chopin both end in early November.

 

[Marko1]

I note plans for wizz air uk mentioned somewhere . I wonder this may be a reason for the sudden drop in routes

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I note plans for wizz air uk mentioned somewhere . I wonder this may be a reason for the sudden drop in routes

I assumed that Wizz UK was a way of accessing the UK market if Brexit throws up complications when the final arrangements come into play.

Your post encouraged me to do a brief check of the Wizz situation and I've learned one or two things. Although it's a Hungarian registered airline Wizz Air's parent company is UK based-Wizz Holdings Plc that trades on the London Stock Exchange in the FTSE 250 index.

A look at today's share price for Wizz Holdings Plc shows that it has risen over 87% in the past year.

Wizz used to have Ukrainian and Bulgarian subsidiary companies but these have been closed for a couple of years and a planned Romanian subsidiary never came into being.

 

[andrewgreen]

The Wizz Sofia flight is an A321 again tonight and seems to be every flight now which seems really strange unless Sofia is an all A321 base now ?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The Wizz Sofia flight is an A321 again tonight and seems to be every flight now which seems really strange unless Sofia is an all A321 base now ?

I really don't know about the 321 but it's an odd thing that both Continental to EWR and Lufthansa (Eurowings) in 2008/2009 to FRA both saw almost their best loads in the final calendar month of their respective operations.

When the CAA gets around to publishing its stats for October it will be interesting to see if the average loads are above the capacity of a 320.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I thought I'd have a look at the last month (October) of two of the three remaining Wizz routes.

Sofia carried 3,453 passengers, ave load 191.8, load factor 83.4% on the 230-seat A321

Warsaw Chopin carried 2,869 passengers, ave load 159.4, load factor 88.5% on the 180-seat A320

Incidentally, Ryanair carried 6,394 passengers on its Warsaw Modlin route, ave load 177.6, load factor 94% on the 189-seat B738

Wizz's Katowice route is remaining (so far anyway) and in October carried 3,286 passengers, ave load 165.9, load factor 92.2% on the 180-seat A320.

It's a shame to lose Sofia - it looks as though BRS will be left with the ski season charter flights. Perhaps Ryanair or easyJet will have a look at it. Ryanair's Bucharest route started a year ago and seems to be doing quite well load factor-wise with, in the period from May to October, respective monthly load factors 91%, 95%, 97%, 96%, 97%, 93%.

Of course, such load factors mean little to Ryanair. BRS has lost routes in the past with similar monthly load factors.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I saw an advertisement for Wizz's Bristol-Katowice route on the side of a First Bristol city bus today. I'm not sure whether this should be seen as a good thing (spreading the word even more widely) or a bad (the route needs some bolstering). I hope it's the former.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Winter 2018-2019

BRS's sole remaining route - Katowice - is not loaded for next winter. Reading the BHX Wizz thread that speaks of flights loaded for next winter I checked BRS.

Wizz picked up Katowice after Ryanair dropped a few years ago it despite the usual very high load factors that Ryanair sees on its Polish routes across the board, including all those from BRS. Presumably the BRS-KTW did not achieve acceptable yields for Ryanair despite it enjoying the same load factors as its other BRS Polish routes (high 90s%) that have been operating for several years.

It should be said that in the past BRS has not been amongst the first Wizz airports to have a season's flights loaded so there might yet be hope.

 

[Marko1]

I wouldn't panic yet LY. None of the winter schedule is out for Katowice yet and if I recall rightly it was quite late for the summer season too

 

[superking]

We have not got a wow operation for flights being loaded very late,which I think is not good for any route as punters will look and go else where to use the service to where they want to fly to.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Katowice

Now loaded and bookable for winter 18/19 on Wizz Air website - 2 x weekly on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Same frequency as previous winters.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Katowice

Now loaded and bookable for winter 18/19 on Wizz Air website - 2 x weekly on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Same frequency as previous winters.

The 3 x weekly flights this summer have poor timings. On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday the inbounds arrive at 2155 with a return departure time of 2230. Arrival time back in Katowice is 0155 local.

Last summer the flights left BRS in mid evening on the three days each week.

At least next winter's timings are better.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Katowice

I haven't looked at this route for a while. Its schedule this year is 3 x weekly from mid June till next week, and 2 x weekly for the early and late summer - Tue and Sat all summer plus Thur in the peak period. Timings are pretty dire for the return to Poland - dep BRS 2230 and arrive KTW 0155 local time.

CAA stats show that June carried 3772 passengers, average load 171.5, load factor 95.2%. In terms of load factor the route compares quite favourably with Ryanair's Polish routes in June: Gdansk 98%, Warsaw Modlin, Wroclaw and Rsezsow all 97% and Poznan 96% (can't determine Krakow as it competes with easyJet). As always we don't know the important stats for any of these routes - the yield.

Nevetheless, the fact that Wizz seems to be keeping faith with this one might suggest the yield is ok for them. Ryanair gave it up in 2014 though despite high loads.

 

[Marko1]

It goes 3 weekly over Xmas / new year as well. Such a shame that Wizz has retreated from Bristol. Plenty of opportunities for them had they picked the right routes to start with.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It goes 3 weekly over Xmas / new year as well. Such a shame that Wizz has retreated from Bristol. Plenty of opportunities for them had they picked the right routes to start with.

Kosice was always a strange route to pick in my opinion. After a slow start loads picked up and in summer 2016 its monthly load factors May-October were respectively 77.7%, 84.7%, 91.4%, 92.1%, 94.9%, 87.0%. Of course we don't know the yield but it seems that Kosice itself was the main problem because Wizz only operates one route there now - to Luton. Routes tried after the BRS axing included Tel Aviv but they didn't last long; neither did other routes already in being when BRS was axed. It seems that the Kosice base has been closed with the sole Wizz route now operated by a LTN-based aircraft.

Warsaw Chopin began when Ryanair was already established at Warsaw Modlin and Wizz didn't seem to affect their loads which were invariably in the high 90s% to Modlin each month. Wizz itself was no slouch on Chopin with load factors in summer 2016 June-October respectively 87.2%, 89.5%, 96.0%, 95.7%, 87.6%. I don't know quite what Wizz expected when they began to compete against Ryanair. Unless they were giving seats away these loads don't look at all bad.

Sofia also had decent load factors with summer 2016 showing from May-October respectively 82.8%, 84.2%, 87.0%, 90.3%, 94.6%, 86.8%. Strange that easyJet and Ryanair have now stepped in with Sofia but for the ski season only in both cases, unless the Bulgarian capital appears when one or both of these airlines' summer 19 schedules are announced.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Katowice

Now in the Wizz booking engine for summer 2019. Same schedule as this summer - 2 x weekly increased to 3 x weekly mid-June to mid-September. Timings are still not good - as discussed in #177 above.

At least Wizz keeps faith with this route.