Wizz Air

[TheLocalYokel]

[textarea]Wizz Air launches Warsaw-Bristol

Wizz Air, the largest low fare – low cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe announced today that it would launch a new route from Warsaw to Bristol.

The new flights will start on 19 September with initially 2 frequencies a week. Tickets are already on sale on wizzair.com with fares starting from as low as GBP 18,99 (one way, all inclusive).

“We are confident that the new route will be very popular with travellers from across the South West and Wales wanting to visit Warsaw for business, leisure or to spend time with friends and family. The new service will also bring visitors from the Polish capital to enjoy the attractions Bristol and the region has to offer.” – said György Abrán, Chief Commercial Officer of Wizz Air.

Shaun Browne, Aviation Director at Bristol Airport, said: “We are delighted to welcome Wizz Air to Bristol Airport. Today’s announcement is a vote of confidence in Bristol Airport and the South West, and a signal that strong demand still exists for air travel to and from the region. We will be working hard to ensure the success of this route and look forward to exploring other opportunities with Wizz Air in future.”

In March, Wizz Air based its fourth Airbus A320 aircraft in Warsaw and launched 5 new routes to Eindhoven, Barcelona, Madrid, Turku and Treviso.[/textarea]

http://wizzair.com/about_us/news/default.asp#wizen052

When easyJet operated the Bristol-Warsaw route a couple of years ago the load factors were very high but it was discontinued because of the high cost of accessing Warsaw Airport.

This will be BRS's seventh Polish route with easyJet operating Krakow and Ryanair operating Poznan, Wroclaw, Gdansk, Rzeszow and Bydgoszcz (this one starts early summer).

Could be the start of a route network though most of the obvious Eastern European destinations from BRS are already covered. Maybe Wizz Air will launch German or Scandinavian routes which are lacking from BRS.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Agreed about Wizz Air and future growth at Bristol as things currently stand.

However, I was really musing about the future. Wizz already operate to Germany and Scandinavia but, as you say, from/to Eastern Europe. If they continue to expand they might extend their horizons.

Ryanair had load factors into the high 80s% and low to mid 90s% on all their Polish routes each month throughout last summer and the winter has seen 80%-plus load factors each month. If anything the easyJet Krakow has been even higher but of course with a smaller aircraft.

Shows there is a demand from this region to Poland. Only hope the very high load factors mean decent yields but who knows? Apart from the airlines themselves that is.

 

[Aviador]

It's nice to see the airline branching out once again.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Looking at Wizz's route map most of the obvious central and eastern European destinations operated by this airline are already covered from Bristol by other airlines, mainly Ryanair.

Katowice might be a possibility in Poland though Ryanair tried that one from BRS and axed it.

Varna or Bourgas (the latter already covered in summer by charters) could be seasonal possibilities as could Sofia in winter. Sofia is already flown 2 x weekly by charter operators in winter but BRS has a very big ski market and both easyJet and Ryanair operate ski destinations alongside charter airlines.

Other possibilities though perhaps less likely are Bucharest, Belgrade and Zagreb. Then again who would think of operating flights from Bristol to Riga and Kaunas, then putting the thoughts into practice, as Ryanair has done?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

The BRS-WAW seems to have been withdrawn from sale.

It no longer appears in the Wizz booking engine and Bristol is not on the route map.

Seems a bit quick as the route was only announced less than two months ago and was not due to start until September.

According to Airdb the route has been cancelled along with Wizz's Bristol to Antalya route. The latter is a major surprise because Wizz never told the public it was going to start it. I wonder if the airline ever told Bristol Airport. :rockon:

If WAW has been axed already, as seems the case, someone should tell Bristol Airport as it's still being advertised on the main page of the airport's website.

The approach of winter seemed an odd time to start a route by an airline unknown in the West of England.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I still think it's an odd thing to do - cancel a route only seven weeks after its announcement.

easyJet operated BRS-WAW from November 07 to November 08 at 3 x weekly throughout the year and carried the very impressive total of 45,000 passengers that gives a year round load factor of nearly 90%.

The route was then axed, reportedly because of the high cost of accessing Warsaw Airport - I believe easy's other WAW routes were also chopped then or soon after.

Ryanair's Polish routes from Bristol have consistently shown load factors in excess of 90% in summer (often 95-96% in the main summer months) and 80%-plus in winter.

Whilst acknowledging that lfs don't necessarily equate to profitable routes one might assume that Wizz had taken note of this and based their Bristol operation accordingly.

Either the recession and ash cloud problems have taken the guts out of the market from Bristol at the moment (but the recession certainly hadn't affected the Polish load factors from BRS until March - April is difficult to judge because of the ash cloud and numerous cancellations) or there is another reason why Wizz has acted so swiftly.

The only thing I can think of is Wizz being almost unknow in the West of England, though perhaps Polish expats might be aware of it more than Britons.

Apart from the BRS website I've seen no local advertising for it whatever.

Contrast this with Ryanair who frequently have posters on hoardings around the city and easyJet which is currently in the middle of a big advertisng blitz on Bristol buses and at local bus stops.

It's a shame because with Ryanair threatening to pull out of Budapest in a spat with the airport authorities there (its BRS-BUD route is another that sees high lfs, especially in summer when monthly lfs are well into the 90s%) it might have interested Wizz in filling the gap to Bristol.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It seems that Wizz is axing a number of routes to Warsaw and Prague so it may be that the demise of the still-born BRS-WAW is more to do with problems Wizz may have than with the suitability of the route per se.

 

[Aviador]

Yes things aren't looking so rosy for Wizz right now. They seem to be cutting back a fair few flights, not just from Warsaw either.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I think so.

In confirmation of what you say, easyJet axed all their WAW flights from the UK, despite high loads on most, and never returned. Warsaw is also a blank on Ryanair's route map.

I assumed that when Wizzair announced Bristol-Warsaw they were confident that they could make a decent profit, taking into account airport charges.

Either they miscalculated (because easyJet showed there was huge potential two years ago in terms of bodies on seats) or the charges they pay have gone up or there is a more deep-rooted problem with the airline's finances.

 

[superking]

wizz to start ktw june 2015. 2 flts per week, on a mon and fri.
reported on dried plum .no link yet
good news this. perhaps it will happen this time.

 

[Ray Finkle]

It's now bookable on the Wizz website Friday and Mondays from June 26th, arrives BRS at 19:20 then departs at 19:50.

Next year is shaping up to be a very good one for BRS

 

[TheLocalYokel]

It's now bookable on the Wizz website Friday and Mondays from June 26th, arrives BRS at 19:20 then departs at 19:50.

Ryanair dropped Katowice after summer 2013. The load factors were good that summer ranging from 88% in the shoulder season to 96% in the main summer months (although not as good as most of their other Polish routes which are usually well into the 90s% monthly load factor in summer, often 98-99%. They had previously operated it between 2007 and 2009 before dropping it, then reinstated it in 2011.

Wizz is not well known by West Country punters but it would be by those Eastern European ex-pats who probably make up the bulk of BRS's Polish and other Eastern European routes passengers.

Wizz announced BRS-Warsaw Chopin in 2010 but withdrew it from sale less than two months after it was announced. Let's hope things work out better this time.

 

[Marko1]

Does anyone know how sales of the new route are going and if we may see a few more routes with wizz in the near future ?

 

[TheLocalYokel]

Does anyone know how sales of the new route are going and if we may see a few more routes with wizz in the near future ?

I haven't heard any rumours about sales or new routes. The take-up ought to be good given BRS's other Polish routes but Ryanair axed Katowice despite very high loads.

 

[Marko1]

Winter 2015/16 flights to Katowice on sale now - good news

 

[Ray Finkle]

Good news for BRS.

What is the Eastern European market like from the Bristol area as I imagine if this route does well there could potentially be more to follow?

 

[Marko1]

Not sure of exact figures but I'm guessing there be good demand for more flights to Poland plus there are gaps in Eastern Europe that have either never been served or have been served previously by ryanair and subsequently dropped for one reason or another . Riga and Bucharest would be good

 

[superking]

Good news for BRS.

What is the Eastern European market like from the Bristol area as I imagine if this route does well there could potentially be more to follow?

currently there is 6 flts per week,most at 3 times per week.
easyjet do 1 route as in krakow.


ryanair do the rest as in


poznan
rzeszow
warsaw
wroclaw
gdansk
these mostly 3 per week. all with good loads. but then we dont know yeild.
hope that helps ray.

katowice was dropped by fr with high loads.we dont know yeild.

 

[Ray Finkle]

Thanks for the info and of course you are correct, good load factors are encouraging but it's all about the yields. Hopefully once the brand has been built up around the area more routes will follow, although I'd expect there will be alot of inbound pax and Eastern European ex-pats already familiar with Wizz.

With Ryanair recently saying they were planning big growth at BRS do we think they may react with increased frequencies and maybe even bring Katowice back to try and see Wizz off?

 

[superking]

it could be a dip toe in water to see how the 1 route does.it works well from luton with routes here there and every where.also a lot of luton routes are not covered from brs.
it could be the start of something good.time will tell.
we sure dont want them taking over routes from brs that is already covered,thats no good to man or beast.the west side of the uk is only covered by liverpool, and they dont do many routes. so its a new part of the uk that they dont operate from.