Hello guys, this is my first post here, I signed up because I think you guys are up to date with Wizzair or at least, I hope so:) I want to go to Barcelona around Eastern but what keeps me from booking a flight at WizzAir (although it's around 100 euros cheaper than a ticket with another airline) is that I've heard about the bankruptcy and that it's not going too well with Wizzair at this very moment. What do you think/expect? Should I take a risk and book? I fear that the flight will be suddenly cancelled or that I have to wait for 2 days or so to fly back.. I'm not too worried about delays (but if its more than 4-6 hours, I'd get irritated). So what do you think will expect me? I mean, it's Eastern.. so I think chances are lower that flights are gonna be cancelled, especially because there are frequent flights to BCN from Budapest and back ... not sure what to do.

miemie - it depends on whether you *need* to go to Barcelona, or simply *want* to go to Barcelona. It sounds as if you merely *want* to have a fun time over Easter - and I therefore recommend that you pick the cheapest airline providing passage at times convenient to you and enjoy the long break.

As with almost any airline, and depending on the laws applying to credit cards in the country in which you live, you may wish to use a credit card to purchase the ticket - it normally makes the credit card issuer liable if the airline fails to provide transport.

Airlines are now through the toughest part of the year. Money starts flowing in for the bookings in the lucrative Easter and Summer periods. The risk of an airline going bankrupt now in March is a lot smaller than in the previous 5 months.

someone in the know at Wizzair?
 

Could you answer me this question? was it yield or demand that caused the Bournemouth routes to be dropped? At one stage Wizz were operating to Krakow, Gdansk and Katowice. (Krakow was in competition with easyJet and both stopped the route, but i'm sure room was available for one operator at least)

It strikes me as odd that they didnt trial Warsaw which i think has a great degree of potential. There is a large and wealthy Polish/Jewish population in and around Bournemouth.

W6 at BOH
 

Hi,

I'm not "in the know", but I can tell you that Wizzair never flew BOH - Krakow (that was just Easyjet). Wizzair did however operate from Bournemouth to KTW and GDN.

The GDN route was operated for less than 3 months with flown loads of 68% in March 08, 48% in April 08 and 60% in May 08.

Apologies... i was misinformed.

And the loads for KTW? I thought they were very strong.

Would wizzair ever consider re-introducing flights but to Warsaw instead?

W6 at BOH - Part 2
 

Hi,

Yes, you're right - the loads to KTW do look strong. By my calculations, flown loads on BOH-KTW were 80.54% in 2007 (20,152 pax) and 78.13% in 2008 (29,110 pax).

Easyjet's BOH-KRK service was not so successful: 51.45% in 2007 (4174 pax) and 57.40% in 2008 (6,985 pax).

Ryanair's BOH-WRO route managed 71% in 2008 (29,930 pax) and 69% in 2009 (5,993 pax).

There certainly was (and maybe still is, but I have no data to prove it) a sizeable demand from Bournemouth to Poland, I suspect the problem may well have been the yield (or the lack of).

New option at Wizz Air, WIZZ Flex. Purchased at the time of booking, it will allow pax to change the date, time and routing of the flight, online and any number of times, up to 3 hours prior to the scheduled departure time. The change fee will not be charged, however any fare difference must be paid.

If unsure about the day of departure... why not? It costs just 10 EUR / 9 GBP versus 30 EUR / 26 GBP if changed with no Flex option.

As Wizzkid mentioned, WU have taken a bashing in the Ukrainian market, largely at the hands of corruption. They started up with KBP-SIP, double daily some days, SIP-LWO and KBP-ODS, maybe KBP-LWO too, although I'm not sure about that one. Soon after they added Kharkov, Zaporozhye and a couple of other destinations, but one by one these were dropped, as were the active routes, until just KBP-SIP remains.

I understand BOH was dropped due to concerns over currency fluctuations between the PLN and UKP making the route risky regarding profit. Was a great destination though and hopefully we might see it again in the future:ok:

When the debacle that was Sky Europe went belly up last September, there were strong rumours of a move into Slovakia for Wizz (from their existing B'lava presence). Danube Wings moved more quickly, extending Sky Europe's flights from Poprad to Luton to include Dublin and Manchester. They have recently removed all these flights, although numbers for the LTN and DUB routes looked pretty good (not sure of official figures). With only three month duration and almost no marketing! Anyone heard of Wizz moves in that direction?

Wizz pulled their Bratislava to Rome flight recently and no longer serve Slovakia

Wizzair Cork
 

Any newson new routes to be annouced for cork?

Wizzair is supposedly considering operating a couple of routes to Tampere Terminal Two. There were news about the ongoing negotiations with "a middle-size European low-cost carrier", nobody has mentioned Wizz officially, but frankly, I don't really see who else could try to compete with FR in that very basic and cramped terminal. The agreement, if signed, should be announced within two weeks.

Tampere
 

Well, a good guess ;). Wizzair will start its first route to Tampere (from Gdansk) around mid-June, twice a week (not yet bookable though).

Gdansk-Tampere
 

From 13JUN.

Gdansk - Tampere
 

Ouch! Stepping on Ryanair's toe, especially in Tampere. FR probably too slowly developing there, now its mini-monopoly will be broken.

Potentially a good move on part of Wizz Air. The route selection, however, could have been less competitive with their own Gdansk-Turku route. Instead, e.g. Tampere to Katowice/"Krakow" would be the first ever low-cost connection between Finland and southern Poland...

30th aircraft (HA-LWB) delivered today from Toulouse.

is Dortmund a hub for wizzair?

Just a large 'station' for them, like Luton. No aircraft based there