Originally Posted by
22/04
Wizz Air UK seem to be building up their fleet of A321s so far at the expense of one A320 - a lot of seats to fill.
As I have posted elsewhere DSA seems to be the loser in an area where I think there are too many airports. I don't know what the business case was but would have thought it included taking at least some traffic from LBA. It hasn't done that (except for TUI maybe) and competing with LBA and EMA where Jet2 and RYR are entrenched and to a lessor extent HUY it will be difficult.
The masterplan would argue that DSA can become the airport with the best infrastructure, and entice passengers and freight from EMA, LBA & even MAN. The commercial development around DSA has grown significantly in the last three years with massive warehousing for the likes of Amazon. To call it a loser does not properly reflect the full growth of the airport and surrounding business in recent years specifically since the opening of direct link roads from the Motorway network.
DSA still lacks a proper UK based Loco, but the deal with Flybe has at least shown a market for the flights they have chosen to operate. Wizz (quietly) remain the largest operator, and hopefully their relationship with Peel/DSA can be constructive in replacing and lost BE routes with a Wizz UK operation. On Peels part they will not be upsetting an incumbent as might be the case if they were to pursue RYR or EZY. Peel wont upset TUI trying too hard for Jet 2 - but if growth can be maintained over the next few years proving the calims of the masterplan, maybe even Jet 2 will see the restrictions of LBA and move some of their capacity to the airport that has room to grow.