I've been thinking about Wizz's Flex option on tickets.
It costs about £10 (could be higher in some cases) for one person on a one-way ticket and can be purchased only at the time you buy a ticket - it cannot be bought later. It gives you the right to change the date/route or even refund until 3 hours before departure, no questions asked. The refund takes about 3 days to process (prevents tariff abuse) and goes to a "Wizz account", not your credit card. Money in the Wizz account can be used for purchases in any currency and expires 90 days after being credited. The flex fee (about £10) is not refunded.

I used to think this was a bad idea on Wizz's part as it would lead to fully booked flights seeing large numbers of ticket cancellations at the last minute. And yes, I have done left it to almost the last minute to cancel. That said, it's probably mainly business travellers going with network carriers flying a high frequency route like LHR-EDI who would decide at the last minute - most leisure or infrequent travellers will make up their mind further in advance.

However, thinking about it more, this seems like a good way to increase ancillary income.
- Plenty of people are unsure if they really will fly, but probably do so anyway.
- If you no show and don't cancel until after departure, then you lose your money.
- If you don't use the money within 90 days, you lose your money.
- It also encourages brand loyalty by giving you a reason to fly with them again soon.
- Finally, it gives Wizz extra freedom to overbook - the money always stays in Wizz's bank account, as people who are going to cancel probably do so more than 3 hours in advance, giving Wizz time to sell a few more tickets in place of empty seats.

While Ryanair used to be the leader on ancillary innovation, Wizz seems to be ahead nowadays - an example being the shrinkage of size of free hand luggage, so small wheeled suitcases now attract ancillary charges.

What are the thoughts of others on Wizz Flex ? Should other LCCs with minimal numbers of business travellers set up a similiar scheme ?

Depends whether you have the systems to handle it.

Air Moldova is in some serious financial trouble.
Perhaps Wizzair might decide it's OK to reopen routes to Moldova if a competitor goes bust ?
https://boardingpass.ro/certificatul...fie-suspendat/

Didn't they stop because of elevated Insurance costs rather than being chased away by any completion?

2 nights delay in getting back to Luton

https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/le...urghada-egypt/

I assume this flight https://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsCon...zz-Air-to.aspx
crew would have gone out of hours. As flight is only x3 week, next flight on Tuesday, perhaps they had to wait for replacement crew? I don't think they run the route from Gatwick and Budapest is on same days so Tuesday again.
It is not like a Tui flights which are arriving many a day from various UK airports. Had a look at flight only fares and TUI is twice Wizzair price, £630 vs £330 in June so you see why people who book everything separately direct jump for the Wizzair flights.
That said, with most airlines, it takes an age to get an answer from their call centers, they should be able to give correct truthful answer first time.

Looking at the article they came back on the same a/c two days later, so unlikely to be crew hours?

And when something goes wrong moan because there was no Wizz representatives and they had to stay in “low standard” hotel?

14th aircraft to be based at BUD in October and a 4th in KUT in December.

I’m led to believe Wizz applied for a 3 aircraft base at both Manchester and Edinburgh back in 2021.. any chance that either of these might come to fruition?

What would be really intriguing is if Wizz also decided to fly Abu Dhabi to various UK destinations once they start getting some Airbus XLR. Would really throw a cog in the works for Etihad whose only advantage at that point is Australia/New Zealand connectivity.

Not very likely given that they were unable to crew Doncaster and Cardiff bases. The issue is still very much there, it will be an interesting summer season even with the two remaining bases.

I'd expect it to be Liverpool anyway not Manchester.

Yes I think Liverpool would do nicely with a Wizz hub considering the recent fall of Blue Air who had a good few routes out of LPL

If they did base say 2 aircraft at LPL would that kill any chance of a new Jet2 base at LPL?
What is the overnight parking like at LPL?

I don’t necessarily think so. A couple of Wizz routes down to Spain and maybe places like Romania wouldn’t really do much to Jet2. Jet2 operate on a different business model to Wizz. Jet2 have a lot of favour with the general holidaymaker with their fantastic customer service and booking a package holiday with them is a much more attractive proposition than booking everything separately on Wizz.

My question was overnight parking at LPL.
I think Wizzair would run core Eastern European routes rather than sunshine routes which have not been a Stella success.
I am sure Jet2 would not overlap on anything, it was whether LPL could handle both?

That's the only point of difference between Wizz and Etihad?

There are 11 based aircraft, there is space for more.

Interesting next few days for Wizz. April passenger statistics due tomorrow with the full years results to 31st March due in the next few days. Share price rose to just over £30 on Friday with J P Morgan raising the price target to £37.50. The results will still show a loss of course but very much reduced. With 47 per cent of the stock held by four large investment companies including Indigo Partners with 20 per cent they seem to think it is a wise investment not like some people on here who would like to see the airline fail with the loss of thousands of jobs, but they have got to improve markedly on their refunds policy etc.

Of course many here only see the UK presence and UK press. With so many new aircraft on order the expansion will be more Eastwards with little in UK unless some breakthrough in getting slots at LGW occurs. Perhaps away aircraft serving LPL, BOH & SEN.
I predicted Saudi & Turkish bases with a similar model of part ownership with local business as Abu Dhabi, which eventually get linked back to UK, but not for a while yet.

I am surprised Wizzair hasn't resumed their BOH flying much earlier.

If you look at the performance of Ryanair on BOH-Wroclaw and Krakow in particular, it would suggest this region is underserved.

If you look at FR24, I think you will find that Wizzair already do half a dozen destination from LPL with away aircraft each week and have done so for some years now.

Why of course they do like BHX & LBA, I was thinking a big increase at LPL and if that goes well maybe a UK base later.

Varadi gave an interview earlier this week in which he mentioned flying non-stop between London and Abu Dhabi as a possible idea. Note - just an idea, and CEOs can often throw out ideas to get people excited when they have no intention of implementing them
That said... what would stop or advise against Wizz from operating A321XLRs between Luton or Gatwick and the UAE once sufficient airframes have been delivered either in late 2023 or early 2024 ? Non-stop fares on BA, EY and EK between the UK and the UAE (i.e. not involving a connection onto somewhere else) are not particularly cheap
As an aside, I really don't get the multipass subscription idea - I can't figure out who would buy it, or why Wizz are offering it

There is an interesting Facebook group called Wizz Air claims and compensation group. After reading many of the posts and yes there are many, I don’t know if Wizz is going bankrupt, is incompetent, or is still trying to deliberately operate outside EU and U.K. consumer protection laws.

There have been enough warnings about this airline that I have little sympathy for those chancers who book up and then it goes all wrong.

Confessed a year later that last summer was difficult for them and already looking for excuses for this summer (on Instagram):

"Last summer was difficult for us and we understand we fell short of our own service standards due to operational challenges.
The upcoming season is going to be tough for all airlines. According to Eurocontrol, it's going to be the hardest summer for Air Traffic Control
in the last 10 years. But your safety and comfort remain our top priority! We’re committed to improving, that’s why we’ve invested in our operation
to handle the expected increase in air traffic.We're introducing PINK - our promise to provide an improved service experience for you! PINK stands
for Punctual, Innovative, New and Knowledgeable"

What a meaningless slogan - nothing but platitudes. What happens if they break that promise? They withhold compensation for years and years?

Do people fly with airlines without knowledge? How will Wizz's knowledge translate into a tangible benefit for me as a passenger?

Just operate well priced flights, on time with a decent level of customer service. That's it.

https://simpleflying.com/wizz-air-cu...before-launch/

Wizz cuts longest planned route before it even starts

They were going to do Milan - Abu Dhabi and back with the same crew? :\

Crikey. :ugh:

Only slightly more than TUI UK who do Cape Verde & Gambia with same crew.

Remember these were to be with 321LRs, wait until the 321XLRs arrive in 2024.
I'm not sure Milan Abu Dhabi is a massive market anyhow.

WAW will get a 11th aircraft this winter
https://wizzair.com/en-gb/informatio...ts-warsaw-base

I read some comments on Bookface that they planned to do it with the same crew and expected such people to work into their discretionary time (presumably because they're not on the EASA AOC). Am I right in thinking that the eastbound leg was blocked at well over 7h? Absolute insanity if they wanted to do that.

I appreciate other airlines operate not overly dissimilar length sectors with the same crew but Wizz's CEO recent comments about pilot fatigue with this would make me very dubious about wanting to do it if I worked for them.

Wizzair Hungray & Malta have EASA AOC, what is your point, probably less work than a crew doing 4 sectors.

Wizz seem to be dropping routes to/from Alexandria in Egypt in June at the same time they are starting new routes to Giza (which happens to be near Cairo and the Pyramids, so a likely much larger market)

They’d have been operating this turn on their non-EASA aircraft presumably? Are you suggesting that crew doing what would possibly be a 16h work day is easier?

Some would think so with longer time off rather than 5 days on the trott of starting at 4AM doing 4/6 sectors a day. Will reach legal limits of flying/duty hours in 7, 14 & 28 days much quicker.
If you want to move up to LH one day then this will give you a taster. I'm sure most pilots would rather be flying than flight planning/check listing every few hours.
16hrs is the limit though so when the 321XLRs do arrive they must start overnights if they are considering more East/West routes and TZ differences.

FCO-AUH is always operated by Wizz Air Malta and since January 2023 is a planned 24h layover. MXP-AUH and KTW-AUH were supposed to be the same I think but not sure.

Full report via the link

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/w...line-vglww6db8

Spot on.