Wizzair-3
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Little Town New Jersey
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Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Not so many places currently
Age: 60
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Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Little Town New Jersey
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If they want to set up at BHX nobody can stop them, but I don't think I would be offering incentives to them.
In the 1990s... people thought Easyjet were a bunch of cowboys... some airport chose to encourage Easyjet (e.g. Liverpool) while others kept Easyjet at arms length until they realised it was too late. As far as I know, slots at Birmingham do not trade for the same kind of money as those at Heathrow, which suggests Birmingham has space. If Wizz can pay the airport fees and BHX can make a profit on the revenue associated with the flight (airport fees, car parking, retail sales, etc...), then BHX should grab the business.
people thought Easyjet were a bunch of cowboys
My last flight with Wizz, about 2 weeks ago, arrived 2h50m late (so no EU261 compensation) landing at Luton at 4 am and my getting home at 5:45 am. Yes, I had to work the next day. Since then, I have booked plenty more flights with Wizzair. Mrs Johnson and I are currently looking at visiting Cairo and the Pyramids next year. Wizzair can be very cheap, and we get to see large areas of Europe, North Africa and West Asia with them.
I stand by my previous opinion on BHX and Wizzair - you can either be a stuffy old fart in life decrying things as not good enough and consequently doing nothing... or you can dive in to life and make the best of the (non-perfect) opportunities available.
Last edited by davidjohnson6; 11th Aug 2023 at 14:59.
No problem with that, but your comparison to easyJet was poorly framed. I don't think EZY back in the 90's were regarded as "a bunch of cowboys" in the same way as Wizz are now.
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Belgium
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It would appear that Wizz's view of passenger legislation is at odds with the CAA's, and the manner in which they screwed over DSA and CWL would lead me to be very reluctant to incentivise Wizz to operate from any airport, unless they were desperate for business.
If they want to acquire slots and operate at the going rate that would be fine, but caveat emptor should apply when booking flights with Wizz. That of course applies to some extent for all airlines, tour operators etc.
If they want to acquire slots and operate at the going rate that would be fine, but caveat emptor should apply when booking flights with Wizz. That of course applies to some extent for all airlines, tour operators etc.
Join Date: Jan 2005
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BHX is there to make money and like RYR, if they can generate an uptake of pax then they will be happy. Let's face it, they don't have the likes of BA fighting them off for slots because LHR is full.
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: In the sticks
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Wizz are the equivalent of a second hand dodgy car salesman. They take your money and when things go wrong they often walk away and then don’t comply with EU or U.K. laws. They also have a bad habit of ignoring CCJ’s.
Last edited by LTNman; 11th Aug 2023 at 17:13.
Same could have been said of Ryanair some years ago - there were plenty of horror stories such as people on a Sunday evening being told they had a choice of getting their £30 back or waiting 4 days for a flights home... and then having to hire a coach to drive them from an airport in southern France to Calais before catching a ferry.
Join Date: Jul 2002
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Agreed, Ryanair has sort of become respectable as there is a new villain in town. Not surprised at all that Luton sees Wizz as their partner. I take the view that both sets of owners are shady.
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Belgium
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Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: north yorkshire
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Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: UK
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On one highly anecdotal and potentially specious metric (the number of people being charged money at the gate on Ryanair flights I'm flying on) either people have learned how to deal with them or they have indeed cut back on, as MOL put it, "unneccessarily pissing people off" (or both).
Join Date: Jan 2005
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9H-WBK has been used on W9 route from Luton to Tirana last few days, but G-WUKM has been laid up for 3 days so perhaps technically a sub for a sick plane.
Join Date: Jan 2021
Location: Liverpool
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My Wizz Air flight from Warsaw to Liverpool was delayed by over 3 and a half hours on 9th July and I put a EU-261 claim the next day. The money was paid into my account 18 days later. I was quite impressed.