Wizzair to fly from Luton [Archive]

LGS6753

29th Mar 2004, 18:05

I guess it'll all be down to marketing. Wizz look professional judging by their website's contents.
Let's hope they win!

Air Polonia only operate Stansted-Katowice 3 times a week, Wizz operate Luton-Katowice daily.
But Air Polonia operate from Stansted to other Polish cities (not seven days a week) including Warsaw.
Wizz's website is better and quicker.
Air Polonia will charge £106.38 for a round trip on 7-11 June, Wizz will charge £48.30.
Air Polonia will charge £106.38 for a round trip on 14-19 July (no flight on 12th July, my original choice), Wizz will charge £80.30.
Wizz flights are 0730/0805 in/out of LTN, APN inbound is 0845, outbound 1455.
Wizz operate newish A320s, APN 734s.

None of the above is conclusive, but I'm with Wizz.

WHBM

29th Mar 2004, 18:49

I see that alongside "London" in the Wizzair timetable they have a column headed Code which says "LUT", same for "Milan" with "BGY" alongside. No explanation at all. Unless you are knowledgeable about aviation you will not know that these are peripheral airports, not the main ones. At least Ryanair does say the actual name in smaller type underneath.

Sorry LGS6753, website doesn't look professional at all in this respect.

LTNman

29th Mar 2004, 19:18

Seems clear to me. If you try and book a seat it says London Luton. If you look at airport access it shows how to get to Luton. What more do you want

wawkrk

29th Mar 2004, 19:24

Katowice is not the most exotic location in Poland.
Old factories,lots of polution.
I imagine that it is too expensive for the locos to fly to the nearby LOT stronghold city of Krakow (45mins)which is a beautiful tourist location and Polands second city.It also supports direct flights to the USA.

wawkrk

WHBM

29th Mar 2004, 19:45

What more do you want
I want information explained where I am looking at it in the timetable, not elsewhere on different pages that are not even linked or cross-referenced.

Only explaining "London" is Luton when you try to book is pretty shady practice.

Buster the Bear

29th Mar 2004, 20:16

Peripheral airports?

Luton is London!

I am sure that Wizz are not shady!

Central London is 60 min away from the Luton tarmac including coach and train from the time you land. About the same time as landing at Gatwick and Heathrow. I will miss out Stansted as it's rail link alone, takes over an hour and this does not take you to the centre of London! Do not even mention the M11/M25!

From my Polish knowledge, Katowice has one of the biggest population centres. Those OLD polluted areas are now real centres of capital/jobs. Gdansk is another well populated centre not served via Lo-Co's.

Good luck to all at Wizz!

Shame about painting your planes in the same colours as the blouse/skirt combination worn by the voice of the ATIS at Luton!http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

LTNman

30th Mar 2004, 04:09

I think someone is making a fuss over nothing as you can’t make a booking without being clearly told which airport is being used.

Powerjet1

30th Mar 2004, 05:35

Easy or someone, give us a daily Luton-Prague. Now that would be a winner!!!!!!. Just about served from every uk airport bar LTN/LPL.

Buster the Bear

30th Mar 2004, 08:18

powerjet1, I totally agree, Prague is a beautiful destination, such a shame that easyJet do not fly from Luton to there.

I did not here anything via the local media about the launch of Wizzair from Luton. There is a very large Polish community locally who will need to know of its future operations.

http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

Powerjet1

30th Mar 2004, 08:33

Buster

Nothing on the airport website either, but that is hardly surprising- TBI take so long to up date anything. Still quoting airport stats for 2001 !!!!. Also, according to the website, Volare still fly to Rimini & Venice from LTN. Come on TBI marketing dept, get with it.

phnuff

30th Mar 2004, 10:48

LTN is as much London as Gatwick is London

Powerjet1

30th Mar 2004, 14:10

I take it all back.

TBI have announced on Luton's website, the launch of flights by Wizz starting 19 May between Luton & Katowice.

Interestingly, CEO Josef Vrandi said 'This is only the first step. We anticipate operating many more flights between Eastern Europe & London Luton Airport and these will be announced in due course.

Let battle commence!!!!!

Towerman

30th Mar 2004, 17:52

Hmmmm

I dont think Wizz have even got their aircraft yet - A320's I recall. Seem to have heard these are all A320's whose previous operators went belly up.

Where are they in the maintenance and preparation cycle ??

Buster the Bear

30th Mar 2004, 19:07

Towerman says " I dont think Wizz have even got their aircraft yet - A320's I recall" I think various photo's on www.airliners.net prove that they have a plane due into service quite soon?

http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

I understand that this aircraft could well be HA registered, giving us a clue to another destination and I believe thier chief man is ex Malev?

wizzard01

30th Mar 2004, 20:35

All under control!! (Lufthansa is maintenance provider)

Just check out the new website: www.wizzair.com

WHBM

31st Mar 2004, 04:05

I think someone is making a fuss over nothingHmmm, suggest re-reading my comments about their "bait and switch" tactics. It's not a discussion about whether Stansted is closer than Gatwick or not, it's that the website doesn't tell the average punter at all which airport they will be using until they actually come to book it. Same for Bergamo.

By the way, don't get too excited about the size of their fleet at this stage. The schedule on the Wizzair website requires the use of just one aircraft for all operations.

Buster, I can't see how your claim about Liverpool Street station (terminal of the Stansted train) being "Not in the centre of London" holds up.

LTNman

31st Mar 2004, 04:47

it's that the website doesn't tell the average punter at all which airport they will be using until they actually come to book it. Same for Bergamo.

No different to BA as they don’t tell you which airport they use until you are well into the booking process. Don't believe me then try booking a seat to New York.

WHBM

31st Mar 2004, 05:52

Don't believe me then try booking a seat to New York.
I just did. And as soon as I entered my from and to dates the offered flights for those days correctly state which airport is being used for each flight. And flights to Moscow (first place I could come up with of where BA do not use the airport you first think of) likewise specify Domodedovo. And the BA timetables for these places correctly explain the airports used.

Come on, guys, the same as my comments about the Wizzair timetable applies to us all here. Let's try and be accurate.

Hamrah

31st Mar 2004, 06:11

WHBM,

I found that as soon as you click on the "departure airport" tab, the drop down menu shows "London-Luton" and "Milan-Bergamo". The rest of the site just talks about London and Milan.

The BA site only shows the airport AFTER you have entered city and date of travel. It also has general tabs on New York, Prague etc.

Maybe Wizzair have updated their website since you last looked.

bacardi walla

31st Mar 2004, 06:36

If Wizz plan more destinations from LTN, think maybe NOW have lost out yet again...........:suspect:

wawkrk

31st Mar 2004, 11:45

I am sure I saw a Wizzair aircraft in Warsaw a few weeks ago outside a hanger.I thought it was a 737!

LTNman

31st Mar 2004, 17:39

Maybe Wizzair have updated their website since you last looked.

No nothings changed it's just WHMB losing the plot.

Buster the Bear

31st Mar 2004, 20:53

Some good news for Luton at last.

So summer 04 compared to 03 will show:

Cagliari
Berlin
Budapest
Katowice
Dortmund

Any others that I have forgotten?
http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

dundoniandean

31st Mar 2004, 22:11

Haven't they already painted their aircraft?

LGS6753

1st Apr 2004, 18:14

Buster -

Ye-es but....

Reduced Jersey (1 rather than 3 a week)
Dortmund doesn't start until September
ITs look pretty thin, Britannia especially

And if you compute the growth, then compare it with STN for example (or MCR, NCL, EMA, LGW, even COV(!!)), it's not keeping up with industry trends.

The really sad part is that by so many measures, LTN is the second-best positioned of all UK airports after LHR, yet it languishes at eighth-busiest.

'53

teachin

1st Apr 2004, 18:38

Certainly a shame NOW did not get up and running, but NOW did not include any of WIZZ AIR's destinations in their collection of departures. So I doubt it would have been much of a "head-to-head" on that score between NOW and WIZZ-AIR. There is room for another operator out of Luton to run along side easyJet, as WIZZ-AIR will be coming into Luton and back out. Is the NOW management listening?

Dash-7 lover

1st Apr 2004, 18:59

well, Ryanair are abandoning DUB-BHX in favour of DUB-Nottingham-East Midlands...whatever!! Well in Ryanair's books if its the UK mainland, you'd be lucky....

Eddie Ginley

6th Apr 2004, 11:35

Dear Wizzers,

Just taking a break from the lunchtime Bingo session to point out to all that RE: Existence of their a/c - if you take a look on the airline's website:-

www.wizzair.com

You will see that they have a link to a gallery where you can download some nice (and a few crappy) hi-rez jpgs in zippididoodah format.

These show one of their cabs actually being painted (In Hamburg?) and the finished version. They also claim in the press release shown on:-

www.london-luton.com

To have 6 a/c already.

So there...

Love and kisses,

Fast Eddie
:cool:

LGS6753

24th Apr 2004, 19:38

In a Hungarian National Tourist Office advert in the Travel section of today's 'Telegraph' they claim that Wizz will be flying Budapest-Luton from 12th May.
Now I don't think the date's right, but the route......?

(It also mentions EZY LTN-BUD from 1st May).

Buster the Bear

24th Apr 2004, 21:19

The local rumour mill reckons Budapest-Luton maybe twice a day to complement easyJet, Gdansk possibly daily to follow?

LGS6753

25th Apr 2004, 19:27

The Wizz website refers to an agreement recently made with the airport at Gdansk, so hopefully that will be a base for Luton ops too. In their press releases Wizz refer to operating from various Eastern European bases to major EU cities, so presumably the destination points of Rome, Milan, Berlin and London (Luton) will feature from each eastern base?

Powerjet1

26th Apr 2004, 12:42

Understand five bases within central & eastern europe is the initial target for Wizz, so it would seem likely that LTN could benefit by up to four new routes at least, or five, if allowing Budapest, although this will already be served by easy from 1 May. Understand bookings on that route are selling very well and a second daily service could be on the cards before the year end.

wizzard01

26th Apr 2004, 22:21

New routes are going to be anounced soon, stay tuned!!

Powerjet1

27th Apr 2004, 05:14

Daily evening arr/dep into LTN from BUD starting 24 June. Other new routes announced are :-

wef 24/6 Budapest to ATH,GRO,LTN,BVA,PRG,CIA.

wef 1/7 Katowicz to ATH,GRO,DTM,MUC,BVA,CIA,NYO

colegate

27th Apr 2004, 10:37

Wizz looks like a very high risk operation to me. I will keep watching this space to see waht happens to them.

LGS6753

27th Apr 2004, 19:02

Colegate -

Why high risk?
Your excellent post on another thread makes your view a serious one, so please expand on it.

PS I note that Wizz has now dropped plans for KTW-SXF. Were they just too close?

colegate

27th Apr 2004, 19:42

Thanks for the compliment LGS 6753. The reason that I think that Wizz might be high risk is that they do not seem to be trading from a position of strength. In my years in the airline business I got to know very well that unless you had trading strengths you tended to get dead very quickly. To succeed Wizz has to get customers. To do that it has to have a public profile in the markets that it serves. What profile does it have in the UK market for example? How does the public get to know that it flies from the UK to Katowice or anywhere else? You give you a good illustration of the risks that it faces in the markets that it plans to serve, justlook what might happen of either Easy jet or Ryanair were to target Wizz markets. There would be a flood of advertising and some stunning introductory offers. That has proved to be a successful formula. How has Wizz advertised in the UK market? Do please remember that the UK market is the largest air transport market in Europe. If an airline reallywants to succeed in Europe it must ultimately succeed in Britain. I have seen nothing yet that suggests that Wizz have taken the necessary steps to achieve that.

I would be very pleased if they succeeded and I am a passionate believer in the prospects of air tarnsport growth in eastern europe. I would also happily help any company to derisk their commercial operations. But so far I see expansion plans that might end in shattered hopes.

Buster the Bear

27th Apr 2004, 20:33

In 1997, who had encountered easyJet? Very few.

Marketing and marketing, busting ones ears with offers and savings. Hearing the easy brand all the time and having a high profile boss made easyJet. It is called playing the media.

No advertising=no airline.

You cannot spend all of your budget on fancy aircraft and paint jobs. Most of the budget has to be spent on making folk aware that you exist, for if they are unaware, you could miss a booking.

I fancy that Wizz are advertising big time in Poland and its neighbouring countries.

wizzard01

28th Apr 2004, 00:34

According to Colegate Wizz must have a great public profile in order to succeed. So your Hungarian and Polish is fluent? Because that is where their market is, and that is where they ARE advertising big time! Britain might be a big market, but an airline does not need JUST Britain to succeed..... Luton is just 1 destination out of KTW and BUD. There are 10 more destinations!

So why spend a fortune there (UK)??? You better use your first money in the marketarea where you operate most: Poland and Hungary. And these are big markets (Poland 45 M. people!!!) with too little companies because of the old system.

Wizz is led by a very good management team, with the right mix of airline and corporate managers.

In order to survive they need to expand, otherwise they will ofcoarse be pushed out by the other LCC's. But as far as I know both Easy as Ryan are not planning to make a base out of BUD or KTW. Just some scattered flights.

So I do think Wizz will be a succes!! But time will learn....

Eddie Ginley

29th Apr 2004, 13:54

From London Luton Airport's own website front page this afternoon...

Wizz Daily from London Luton Airport to Katovice - Poland and Budapest from only £30.98p return!

Stop Press - Wizz Air introduce daily flight to Budapest from London Luton from 24th June 2004.

... just thought you'be interested...

Love from Fast Eddie
:ok:

XSBaggage

30th Apr 2004, 01:34

wizzard 01,

You say Easy and Ryan are planning "a few scattered flights", I presume you mean in Eastern Europe? Do you have any more details? I am aware of the LJU and BUD routes Easy are starting, just wondering if there are any more?

I am a little unsure of the "wizzdom" of them flying to Skavsta, Ciampino, Girona, Bergamo, Treviso, Beauvais et al, as these are either Ryanair bases or hubs, and may attract some unwanted attention from FR. It obviously is good news for these airports, as to be over-reliant on 1 operator (esp in Skavsta and Treviso's case) is never good.

Perhaps we are now seeing the real emergence of the secondary airports, which previously have been held hostage by Ryanair. Don't forget the publicity of the CRL case actually benefitted that airport!

Powerjet1

14th May 2004, 05:03

Wizzair have announced they are increasing their flights from Luton to Katowicz to twice daily wef 1 July. Adding a evening departure ex LTN @ 20.15.

Budapest is also increasing from 7 to 11 weekly flights, wef 15 July with a morning departure ex LTN @ 7.55 on M, W, F, Sun. This is in direct easy competition with easy's daily lunctime departure to BUD from LTN.

LTNman

14th May 2004, 05:47

Other news at Luton as reported by the newsgroup free.uk.airports-Luton is that Harrods Aviation will be building additional hangarage and ramp parking at LTN. A brand new apron of 9,200 sq metres adjoining a new hanger of 2,500 sq metres are to be built to open at the end of this year. This story first appeared in the company newsletter at http://www.metrofbo.com/index.htm

Powerjet1

19th May 2004, 06:37

Wizzair's inaugural flight has just arrived at Luton from Katowice. Great colour scheme. Good luck to all those involved. At least it got in the air unlike some others we could mention. Service goes twice daily from 1 July plus Budapest commencing next month , that also going twice daily from 15 July.

Vizcaya

19th May 2004, 10:05

I think EZY should be very very worried about new competitors like Wizzair as they soon will be able to undercut EZY prices and offer a better product at the same time.

If you got a good product, clean and state of the art aircraft, a nice paintjob, a large homemarket and low costs, the sky is the limit in Europe!

Maybe Wizzair does not have a flamboyant and charismatic CEO (neither does EZY at this moment by the way!) but don´t underestimate the potential power of the eastern european market, as low cost is the only kind of air travel that most people are able to afford. The don´t NEED British media coverage or British travellers on their airplanes in order to be successful.

Problem is that too many people like colegate think that the UK is the center of the universe.

Look at EZY for example. Their aircraft are dirty and old (especially at STN!) and even the new -700´s look old and dirty after only a couple of months because of a lack of cleaning.

The EZY paint job is horrible! You might say "that´s not important, the ticket price is what counts for the pax" but believe me it IS important! People want a nice clean aircraft and a the paintjob is one of the aspects. If the paintjob looks ugle and the toilet stinks, passengers will have a VERY negative impression.

So far the EZY formula has worked well within the UK because (sorry to break the news) Britain runs not just one hour, but about one decade behind the rest of Europe. Mainland Europeans regard the UK as a country where everything is OLD, EXPENSIVE and DIRTY. Most Brittons don´t seem to mind at all. As a matter of fact, they LIKE it old and outdated and don´t seem to notice the potholes in the streets, the desolate housing blocks or the dirty carpet on the toilet floor. They don´t even mind sitting in an old and dirty 737-300 with an orange website written on the side of the fuselage.

The rest of Europe is a bit different though. Sure, people like to stavel cheap, but at the same time they want to sit in a clean aircraft and they are a bit more concerned about things like image, design and style. I´m doubtfull if the EZY formula will work just as well on the mainland as it has in the UK, with competitors like Wizzair, Germanwings, V Bird, unless they become REALLY REALLY cheap. Like Ryanair.... ;)

MerchantVenturer

19th May 2004, 12:26

Wizzair may be looking at other UK airports if this report in today's Bristol Evening Post is anything to go by.

http://www.thisisbristol.com/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=86419&command=displayContent&sourceNode=86416&contentPK=10012935

Bristol International Airport has unveiled plans for flights to Poland as it gears up to meet growing demand for travel to new EU member states. Poland was one of 10 new countries to join the EU at the beginning of May, creating new requirements for business and travel opportunities.

Bristol International Airport has unveiled plans to tap into the burgeoning market and is currently involved in negotiations with two Polish low-cost airlines.

They hope to eventually launch a new service between Bristol and an as yet undecided major Polish city.

Tony Hallwood, aviation development director, at Bristol International said its plans to introduce a new line had been prompted by Poland's accession to the European Union.

He said: "There are three things which have sparked Bristol's interest in introducing low cost flights to Poland.

"The first is its membership of the EU. Poland has a population of more than 38 million and is by far the largest new EU member state.

"Therefore it is going to generate leisure and business flights.

"The second is that we have been doing some digging around of our own and found that about 30,000 people from the South West travel to Heathrow and to the South East airports to fly to Poland each year.

"We want to make sure that people from the South West fly from the South West gateway, and that's us."

Mr Hallwood said the third factor had been a growing Polish presence in Bristol, including the decision by city bus operator First Group to recruit 32 Polish drivers and three engineers.

The firm has struggled to retain a full workforce over recent years and 14 of the drivers, together with the three engineers, will be based in Bristol.

Mr Hallwood said: "At the moment it appears there would be demand for flights from Warsaw and Krakow but also other regional gateways including Katowice and Posnan.

"There are two low-cost Polish airlines flying between the UK and Poland, Wizz Air which flies to Katowice and Air Polania which flies into Warsaw.

"We are currently in discussions with both and hope to commence flights to one of the Polish gateways in the near future."

colegate

19th May 2004, 17:54

With reference to what Merchant Venturer has written it is interesting to recall that back in the early 1990's BAA did a survey about the usage of Gatwick and Heathrow airports. One statistic that emerged very clearly from that was that for every passenger from Brighton who used Gatwick to fly to Paris (LGW is about 25 minutes drive from Brighton) six paseengers travelled to Heathrow to go to Paris (LHR is the best part of a two hour drive from Biighton) . To get paseengers on a flight to have to have convenient schedules and the right prices in addition to having poterntial passengers in the catchment area.

Vizcaya seems to think that I regard London as the centre of the world. My comments may have been misunderstood so I will clarify them. they are:
1. London is overwhelmingly the largest air transport market in the world. In 2002 LHR/LGW/STN handled well over 105 million pax. New York was 81 million, ATL was 77 million.
2. London is largely an O& D market. By contrast ATL is largely a transfer market.
3. Around 40% of all Europeam flights involve London. It has a natural advantage for air transport because there is something called the English Chamnnel/North Sea which makes surface transport difficult.
4. The great prize in aviation is to get a profitable share of the largest air transport market in the world. Why not? I am sure Poland and Hungary are very attractive destinations for prosperous British people. You only have to look at the stunning success of Prague to see the possibilities. I hope Wizz are successful in earning British currency to take people to Poland. But I have not yet seen any newspaper advertising from them. By contrast Easy, Ryan and Air Berlin all advertise regularly. Easy and Ryan seem to advertise every day.
5. London is a highly competitive market. To get any fair share of it requires professionalism. Put the effort in and the rewards will come through. Fail to put in the effort and the huge and relatively rich market that is London will not know what opportunities there are.
6. The livery of the aircraft is not important in attracting traffic. The attitude of the staff and the ease of using the website are vital.
7.Airlines often fail because they forget that they need passengers to pay good fares all the year round.
8. Please remember that it is not just the destination that matters. There is a very important thing called discretionary spending. Wizz has to get on to that discretionary British spending list. If it does it may do very well. If it does not it will find life to be very tough.
Good luck to them.

trainer too 2

20th May 2004, 10:03

Now it is becoming more interesting, these are not the worst kind of investors:

Wizz Air Secures Investment from Indigo Partners

Wizz Air, the new European low fare airline announced yesterday that Indigo Partners LLC, a U.S. airline private equity fund, has agreed to invest €20 million in the carrier. The agreement also includes raising an additional €20 million from European private investors.

Indigo Partners was established in late 2002 as a private equity investment vehicle focused on the air transportation industry. Its principals, Bill Franke and Steve Johnson, are experienced in the airline and airline finance sectors and, most recently, were founders of Tiger Airways, a low-cost new-entrant carrier based in Singapore.

Bill Franke said: “We think the Wizz Air low fares model is a long overdue answer to the enormous demand in Hungary and Southern Poland for affordable air travel and will underscore recent Eastern European business and financial successes. The timing of the opportunity couldn’t be better as the key markets that Wizz Air expects to serve enter a new phase of history and become part of the European Union. We are excited about this opportunity.”

Wizz Air based in Budapest, Hungary and Katowice, Poland, begins service May 19. The proposed investment will close by the end of July 2004, assuming all conditions are met.

Powerjet1

20th May 2004, 10:31

Per Luton's Website........

Wizz Air lifts off at London Luton Airport 19/05/2004

Wizz Air's new low cost European network commenced operations this morning with the first flights between London Luton Airport and Katowice, Poland.

These inaugural services marked the start of the
latest chapter in the continuing success story of no frills flying at London Luton Airport.

The first flight from Poland arrived on time at London Luton at 07.35 hrs local - and was fully subscribed with every seat on the 180 seat Airbus A320 taken. After a short turn-round the spectacularly-liveried Wizz Air aircraft left on the return leg to Katowice.

On board the first flight to London Luton Airport was József Váradi, founder and CEO of Wizz Air, who said: “In less than a year we have created and launched Wizz Air. Any new airline’s first flight is always special but today’s was even more marked because London Luton is widely recognised as being one of the main airports that helped to put low-cost air travel on the map in Europe.”

Paul Kehoe - Managing Director of London Luton Airport added “A new era for London Luton Airport started this month with the skies over Eastern Europe now fully ‘open for business’ – and today we are absolutely delighted to welcome Wizz Air as our latest partner here”.

“London Luton Airport has always been at the forefront of the low-cost flying revolution and we are confident that our new partnership with Wizz Air will lead to continuing growth in the no-frills market”

“Travellers will be anxious to explore the fantastic business and leisure opportunities offered by Wizz Air’s services from London Luton to Katowice and Budapest – and to sample the airline’s very high levels of comfort, service and convenience.”

Powerjet1

16th Jun 2004, 04:13

Wizzair have announced that from the 10 August they will commence a twice daily service from Luton to Warsaw and a daily service from Luton to Gdansk. This will bring to seven, the number of daily departures from Luton, the others being twice daily services to Budapest & Katowice.

Buster the Bear

16th Jun 2004, 18:34

WHAT FANTASTIC NEWS!

At a 75% load factor, that is an extra 300,000 passengers over and above thier already announced plans for this year, so Wizzair could by carrying over 600,000 passengers through Luton!
http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

Buster the Bear

17th Jun 2004, 14:52

Wizzair looks like being a huge success and a bit of a coup for TBI. They managed to pinch Volareweb from under the BAA's noses (Admitingly the airline has had to scale down it UK ops since), and brought in a new low cost airline serving Poland and Hungary. I am not sure that there is a Lo-Co operating from Poland into Gatwick, there certainly is into Stansted.

The number of new destinations and thier frequencies will see Wizzair bacome one of the major carriers at Luton. Let us hope that the airport's curse on new airlines does not affect Wizz!

Now all we need is an airline to operate Luton to Prague!

Ciao Fly (for) Now!

http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

brabazon

17th Jun 2004, 15:07

Buster

Why 75%? easyJet only start to make money at 80% and their average load factor last year was 84%. Do you think Wizz have lower costs than easyJet, if so perhaps easyLand will soon relocate.

Buster the Bear

17th Jun 2004, 16:00

I have no idea on loads/yeild/profit, but as a new entrant it will take a while for loads to grow (Possibly not?) so 75% seems a reasonable figure just to calculate roughly the number of additional passengers expected through the tinminal, sorry terminal!
http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

LTNman

17th Jun 2004, 21:43

Wizz coming to LTN has probably got more to do with not getting any early morning slots into Stansted than anything TBI has done.

Buster the Bear

17th Jun 2004, 22:32

What a load of xxxx! Try and research your post first!

Stansted has plenty of morning arrival slots to keep thier terminals hungry after the early morning mass Lo-Co departures. Stansted is still operating well under capacity, morning arrivals are a case in point! More to do with Air Polonia at Stansted.

So LTNman why did Wizz not go to Gatwick, an airport that also has morning arrival slots available and it is the UK's second busiest airport and part of the BAA?

TBI and Wizz have done thier homework. Both are David's in a Goliath world. TBI operate a major UK airport without the financial clout of the BAA or Manchester, so I say good luck to TBI and Wizz!

I am sick and tired of folk knocking Luton. 7mppa is not bad for an airport without the BAA's financial clout. Keeping airlines from moving to the BAA must be a massive task, stealing them from under the BAA's noses is brilliant!

http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

bacardi walla

17th Jun 2004, 23:14

7mppa and yet it's still a building site with a runway. Has been since the 80's :ok:

LTNman

18th Jun 2004, 05:36

7mppa and yet it's still a building site with a runway. Has been since the 80's

There is no building work taking place at LTN.

Stansted has plenty of morning arrival slots to keep thier terminals hungry after the early morning mass Lo-Co departures.

Anyone know of the web address that shows slot availability at major UK airports including Stansted and Luton? The last time I looked Stansted was full at certain times of the day while Luton was OK 24/7

Powerjet1

18th Jun 2004, 06:24

Wizzair's planned expansion at LTN is good news indeed for the airport & hopefully it will continue. However, looking at the CAA stats for May, pax numbers actually were down on May 2003 by 3.1% to 598,000. A drop of some 19,000. This is despite the fact that easy started triple daily to Berlin & daily to Budapest. Am I right in thinking this is probably due to Britannia only basing two aircraft at LTN this summer, with other flights now being sub-chartered out to other airlines which were usually covered by the third aircraft. I know Flybe have greatly reduced their summer Jersey ops to a weekly sat 146 as opposed to daily Dash flights plus 2/3 x 146s on a saturday last year.

brabazon

18th Jun 2004, 08:18

Powerjet1, you should be able to check the CAA stats route data (table 12 on the CAA Airport Statistics page) to see if it's scheduled or charter which has dropped. Until easyJet's new routes were started their traffic had stagnated or even fallen on a few routes, partly as they expanded at Gatwick.

Powerjet1

18th Jun 2004, 09:14

Brabazon

Thanks for that although I don't think that information for May is available yet. Take onboard what you say about easy's expansion at LGW but having said that, pax nos have increased every month at LTN over the last 12 months,albeit small, averaging 3/4% a month. So because this first drop was in May(start of summer charter flights) that is why I immediately thought of Britannia.

LTNman

18th Jun 2004, 15:42

So LTNman why did Wizz not go to Gatwick, an airport that also has morning arrival slots available and it is the UK's second busiest airport and part of the BAA

Wizz needs 6 early morning slots but according to https://www.online-coordination.com/Default.aspx?tabid=AvailWeek Gatwick doesn't have them although they could have squeezed into STN so I guess it is one to TBI

Alloy

20th Jun 2004, 22:02

The Wizz aircraft always seem to be full on arrival but empty on departures!

LTNman

21st Jun 2004, 05:34

The Wizz aircraft always seem to be full on arrival but empty on departures!

shhh don't tell the Daily Mail as the government want to keep the lid on this

Powerjet1

13th Jul 2004, 12:46

I think easyjet are going for the jugular against Wizzair since they are increasing their daily Luton- Budapest to twice daily(Wizzair going twice daily from this friday), starting twice daily Luton-Warsaw(Wizzair starting twice daily from 10 Aug) & daily Luton-Krakow, obviously competing with Wizzair's twice daily Katowice already in operation. Looks like a bloodbath in the making. Likely result, easy 1, Wizz lost. Easy routes starting end of Oct except BUD which started 1 May.

brabazon

13th Jul 2004, 14:24

Poor Wizz Air they build up their brand, get the passengers on their planes, announce new routes and wallop! easyJet come along. This will be interesting, can Wizz Air tough it out, or will they decide that it's not worth the hassle and decamp to another UK airport?

LTNman

13th Jul 2004, 16:39

This is bad news for LTN. The airport desperately needs new carriers so if the unthinkable happened and easy ever went tits up there would still be passengers using LTN. Just look at the departure and arrivals boards at Luton and take away all the EZY flights. The terminal would be empty for parts of the day, this would lead to the shops closing down which would make LTN unattractive to the few remaining passengers so cutting numbers even further.

Doug the Head

13th Jul 2004, 16:43

Relax LTNman, even if EZY would go bankrupt, today´s passenger volumes would mean that somebody else would step into the LTN market.

Otherwise someone can always re-paint those EZY 737-700´s, fit winglets and a nice interior and use LTN as the world´s largest BBJ base! :)

Doug the Head

13th Jul 2004, 18:17

I agree with Studi here! Look at Wizzair´s website and you will quickly understand that the UK/LTN is not their only market/destination.

I think it´s good to see EZY take a stand against the competition, but I´m affraid that it´s too late. Wizzair has grown too big to be easily pushed out of the market and trying to undercut Wizz´s costs will be a mission impossible for EZY.

Curious to see how this will end.

OLNEY 1 BRAVO

14th Jul 2004, 11:12

Just to complete the picture, easyJet are also opening the following routes from 31st October:

Krakow - Dortmund 1 x daily

Budapest - Newcastle 1 x daily

Budapest - Bristol 1 x daily

Budapest - Geneva 1 x daily

Shaka Zulu

14th Jul 2004, 13:16

Does anybody know what these guys salaries are or even more terms and conditions?

Doug the Head

14th Jul 2004, 13:48

Bread and water?

I heard a rumour of captains making equivalent of $1500,- per month.

wizzard01

15th Jul 2004, 21:25

Nope, quite more than this! This is the salary paid by SkyEurope to their captains......

For Wizz captains the salary is depending on sectors flown.
Don't exactly know the numbers, but should be around E5500,-

Doug the Head

16th Jul 2004, 15:54

Aha, yes could also have been SkyEurope.

Hmmm...maybe I should send them my CV! :O

bugs bunny

17th Jul 2004, 05:53

Apparently recruiting Captains through Rishworth, but when I sent the application from the WizzAir web site I got an autoreply saying that the recruitment is finished and will start again in fall...
????
How's that???
Cheers,
Bugs

Buster the Bear

18th Jul 2004, 21:31

EasyJet intends to be the UK’s first no-frills airline to expand into Poland. The airline will start routes from Luton to Warsaw and Krakow on October 31.

EasyJet is targeting the two Polish cities as they are relatively untapped short-break destinations from the UK. It is also keen to establish a presence in Poland, which has the largest population of the new EU entrants – about 40 million. The airline believes this will be a good investment as Poland’s affluence grows. An EasyJet spokeswoman said: “Eastern Europe is going to be the future for growth among low-cost airlines over the next few years.

The move will put EasyJet in direct competition with two Polish start-ups – Wizz Air and Air Polonia.

Wizz, which began operating to Luton in May, is due to start a twice-daily service to Warsaw on August 10. Air Polonia flies from the Polish capital and Krakow to Stansted.

EasyJet will fly twice daily to Warsaw and daily to Krakow.
EasyJet claimed it would not start a price war, but the spokeswoman said: “The market will determine how many low-cost airlines it can support.”

The extra capacity was welcomed by city-break operators.
Cresta Cities product manager Michelle Evans said: “One thing that has hindered Krakow and Warsaw in the past has been the lack of flights from the UK. So this is good news.

EasyJet also begins flights from Bristol and Newcastle to Budapest and increases frequency from Luton to the Hungarian capital to twice daily on October 31.

Budapest was the no-frills carriers’ first target following the expansion of the EU. Airlines in member countries can fly unrestricted to other EU states.

EasyJet will operate 17 routes to eastern Europe by next summer, carrying an estimated two million people. A £1 million advertising campaign starts in the autumn.

EasyJet chief executive Ray Webster said: “It was only two months ago that we started services to Budapest and Ljubljana. There is more to come.”

http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

Powerjet1

19th Jul 2004, 10:20

Wizz have just released their winter timetable. In response to easy's announcement that they are increasing their Luton- Budapest flights from 1 to 2 daily wef 31 Oct, Wizz appear to have responded by increasing their LTN-BUD flights to 3 daily wef 15 Sept. I think we are getting into overkill here.

Twice daily Katowice remains for the winter bar wed evening departures, so 13 departures weekly. Warsaw & Gdansk remain the same as for the summer, twice daily & daily respectively.

Buster the Bear

19th Jul 2004, 13:46

Blimey, that equates to over 1 million seats available through Luton per year by Wizz!
http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

Buster the Bear

20th Jul 2004, 14:58

July 20, 2004
Central European budget airline Wizz Air aims to match easyJet's quality and win on pricing when its larger rival expands eastward later this year, Wizz Chief Executive Jozsef Varadi said on Tuesday.

EasyJet said earlier this month it would start flying from London to Warsaw and the southern Polish city of Krakow in October, and expand its service to Budapest. Elsewhere in the region it already flies to Ljubljana and Prague.

"We have two strategies for competing with easyJet: the first is to offer a product that's no worse than theirs, and the second is that we will always offer lower prices," Varadi told a news conference. "We have a lower cost structure, which allows this. EasyJet's costs are about twice as high as ours," he added.

Budget airlines have mushroomed in central Europe with the accession of eight of the region's former communist states to the European Union in May, which prompted them to scrap treaties protecting national carriers.

Wizz is widely regarded as one of the better-funded local start-ups, but analysts question whether its four planes can compete with established players like easyJet, whose fleet numbered 84 planes as of April.

Varadi also said that privately held Wizz now expects to break even next year, abandoning an earlier forecast that by the end of 2004 Wizz might achieve the load factor needed to move out of the red.
http://whipsnade.co.uk/picturelibrary/jpeg150/br/brown_bear_120_wide.jpg

babydoc

20th Jul 2004, 16:36

Wizz faces a huge battle on the Warsaw and Budapest routes from Luton.

While wizzair claims and has a lower cost base, easy has a number of big aces to call on.

Firstly, it flies 20 routes (with multilple frequencies) from Luton compared to just four for Wizzair. This presents huge marketing economies.

easy has an experienced and talented team working on yield management. Working to fill planes and squeeze as much money out of each punter as possible.

This also works in their favour in a head to head battle. When both easy and GO were competing on NI to Scotland, easyJet had significantly better loads with similar schedules. When the companies merged, it emerged that Go's losses were much deeper on these routes during the period.

In addition, it can afford to have a half a dozen or more loss making routes out of 160 plus. Wizz cannot.

Wizz will be stronger from the European end than the London end but this is likely to be a lower yielding market.

The rest of above report says that Wizzair has up to now been running loads of around 50 per cent, increasing to 65 per cent in the summer months.

I can't see this airline going anywhere on these routes. They'd be better off serving Dublin and Manchester.

Buster the Bear

28th Jul 2004, 08:31

Air Poland Szczecin-London route

27Jul Air Poland will inaugurate nonstop service from Szczecin to London Stansted on November 2nd. The airline will operate 2 flights a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays using its Boeing 737s. Air Poland will also inaugurate a weekly flight from Bydgoszcz to London Stansted operated on Sundays.

Blimey imagine making a terminal tannoy announcement that the Air Polonia flight from Bydgoszcz had just arrived!
http://www.ajpotts.fsnet.co.uk/beartumble.gif

Powerjet1

28th Jul 2004, 08:48

On the negative side, I think Air Polonia have dropped Katowice, Poznan & Slupsk wef 30 Oct. Szczecin & Bydgoszcz look like being the substitutes.

Buster the Bear

8th Aug 2004, 19:38

WIZZ AIR, the new Budapest-based European airline seems to have quickly established itself as a serious player in the budget airline market. In just 11 weeks it has carried 100,000 passengers. The airline launched its operation on 19 May 2004 with flights from Katowice and on 24 June started flying from Budapest to 10 European destinations. By mid-September six 180-seat Airbus A320 will serve 21 routes. http://www.wizzair.com

Following 11 weeks of operations, no frills airline Wizz Air Rt has transported 100,000 passengers already. Its first flight from Katowice, Poland on May 19, flights from Budapest went into operation on June 24. July was a peak period for Wizz Air with 60 000 passengers using the company that month, 25 000 of them through Budapest. These figures place Wizz Air firmly amongst the top five airlines of both Poland and Hungary. (NG 5) Z.K.

http://www.ajpotts.fsnet.co.uk/beartumble.gif

Vizcaya

8th Aug 2004, 21:12

As I´ve said before, EZY and Ryanair will face some serious competition from companies like Wizzair who offer a better product and have lower operating costs.

Colegate care to comment? ;)

Powerjet1

10th Aug 2004, 03:36

With the inaugural flight from Warsaw due to arrive at Luton at 07.30 local, plus the start of the daily Gdansk rotation, this will bring to 14, the number of daily flights to/from LTN from Hungary/Poland, operated by Wizzair. This will increase to 16 wef 15 sept, following the start of a third daily rotation from BUD.

With easy increasing flights to BUD from 1 to 2 daily plus launching 2 x daily flights to WAW, both from the end of Oct & Krakow from mid-december, the competition will increase considerably.

trainer too 2

10th Aug 2004, 09:28

Just wait to see Easy and RYR paying westermn rates to the crew of these airlines... Both Sky Europe and Wizz will have a major problem!

Powerjet1

15th Sep 2004, 16:04

Wizzair will launch 3 x weekly flights from Liverpool to Warsaw, Katowice & Budapest from 7 December. Great news for LPL!!!!!

Third daily LTN-BUD stated today. Wizz now have 8 daily departures ex LTN

eoinok

23rd Sep 2004, 14:56

Just thought I would throw this in here lads.

I flew on the wizz BUD to LTN route yesterday (Wednesday the 22nd of September) and I counted a total of 26 people on board.

They cannot continue with load factors like these, not to mind what they will have when they go X3 daily?

Powerjet1

23rd Sep 2004, 15:06

Agreed. I flew LTN-BUD last friday with Wizz and there were about 70 on board. Coming back Sunday, probably 100. Two weeks before that went out with EZY and I reckon their were only about 8/10 empty seats both ways.

Wizz are three daily now bar Tues/Thur/Sat & will be 3 x daily everyday from 26 Oct. Easy also going twice daily from end of October. Five flights a day, not for long methinks.

Powerjet1

11th Oct 2004, 16:16

Not really unexpected but Wizz do appear to have begun tinkering with their schedules ex LTN. For the Winter timetable, they had listed a total of16 daily flights to/from LTN for their routes from BUD,GDN,KTW & WAW. Now, depending on which day of the week you pick, this seems to vary from a minimum of 10(Tues) up to a maximum of 16(fri) with all other days falling somewhere in between.

BUD and WAW seem to be the worse affected with both loosing the early morning arrival on a couple of days each week and in the case of BUD, also the midday departure on Tues/Thurs/Sat. This is probably a result of easy going twice daily LTN-BUD/WAW from 1 Nov. With easy also starting LTN-KRK on Wednesday, this will no doubt further impact on Wizz's KTW operation & expect to see a further reduction here also.

Are Wizz starting to feel the heat already from easy. Certainly seats with easy, seem to be selling very well on the KRK route if the prices are anything to go by, when compared to those offered by Wizz to KTW,(much cheaper) just down the road.

Powerjet1

19th Nov 2004, 04:52

Wizz have just started releasing summer 05 flights from BUD. Flights to LTN seem to have settled down to twice daily except Tues/Wed when a 1 x daily(evening) operates. The third (mid-day) departure mentioned in their winter timetable but rarely flown, has been dropped. Assuming easy stay the same for the summer, this would give 4 x daily flights between LTN-BUD five days a week, 3 x daily two days a week. Probably just about right.

Other flights have not yet been released. New destinations will be released very soon.