It wouldn't be hard to click on the name of the author (a certain individual going by the Hungarian name of John Woods) to see what he wrote about Wizz recently. Surely not a covert operation to advertise the company:
"Wizz Air considerably changed its summer schedule, ticket prices expected to grow"
"Hungarian Wizz Air in trouble: several popular flights could be cancelled"
"Wizz Air chaos: Hungarians stuck in Abu Dhabi without food, water"

Good check. Certainly a man (or alias) on a mission who gets things published on a few media channels, some just click bait. Has a bee in his bonnet about Romania but that might be his political stance, as I said, Hungary regularly upsets it's neighbours.

XLRs coming to the UK. https://www.routesonline.com/news/29...habi-uk-units/

Best luck to anyone getting on a 239 seat A321 for upto 8 hours with Wizz Air seats and service...

Norwegian fly 737-800s daily in winter from Helsinki non-stop to Tenerife in 6h40 and very few people seem to make a fuss.... is being a passenger on a Wizz A321 really that much worse than on a Norwegian B737 ?

In July, Wizz will begin flying between Milan Malpensa and Abu Dhabi in 7h20. They will fly you one way for £45 (or £35 if you are in their discount club) in November from MXP to AUH - maybe one can buy some food and water at the airport and bring a portable charger to watch a couple of films on your tablet on the way... and use the money saved to do something else

I'm not saying 8 hours on a Wizz A321 is for everyone... but if the price is right, people will take interest

Could it open up new UK routes for Wizz (US? DXB?) or would it be more a case of efficiencies on existing longer-range routes eg TFS, SSH?

US no, CEO already on record saying not a priority. What efficency to TFS, seat same as a standard 321.
DXB yes, and the article says "Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent, as well as central and western Africa.”
If the price is right people will put up with 8 hours.

An 8 hour flight would be the last of my worries. I would more worried about last minute cancellations and the airline ignoring CCJ’s so leaving me out of pocket.

Yep, nor does using a bigger aircraft than the 320; introducing allocated seating and baggage fees; opening western-european bases; using primary airports; selling domestic flights; scheduling flights beyond three hours of flight time etc. All said not being a priority by the CEO at one point.

Not defending their behaviour but wasn't that Nov/Dec news, I'm sure I read it was said they had settled 91% of all known claims now but their was also a bottleneck in the UK courts system of advising all parties of their decisions which did not help anyone.
I think the CAA review these things quarterly so an updated situation should be published soon.

Agreed regarding cancellations and not paying compensation, at least in my experience from a flight they cancelled due to lightning strike and are currently refusing to even refund the money paid for it (claiming I was a no-show on their systems when I have pictures of myself standing in front of a cancelled flight screen in the airport on the day), and ignoring compensation claims as well under UK261.

On the other hand, Wizz air often insanely cheap for longer routes other carriers take hefty amounts for. That can be quite useful, assuming you don't intend to rely on them far in advance (since they will cancel a non-popular route mid year),while understanding that they'll try and charge you crazy amount for anciliaries on said longer routes if you don't find a way to manage without those.

On the US route/expansion, I would love to see A321XLR Luton/Gatwick Transatlantic flights, but it does seem from their statements their current direction at least is eastward. I've heard from Indian colleagues that price for UK - India flights are insanely high, even with one stop, perhaps due to a strong BA/Air India presence. If Wizz wishes to continue expanding upon their original model - immigrant oritented flights, now instead of relying on eastern/central europe immigrants going back home, they can do the same for Indian diaspora both in UAE and UK. VFR, from my limited aviation knowledge, is considered quite a strong base for a route since it is fairly year-round. US Expansions has historically not gone well for low cost companies, for many reasons I'm sure I can't even fathom, but I would imagine you would not wish to do a retread of something many have failed at, and routes where there is already strong competition (including from Norse, another new long haul low cost contender), while you can simply go for routes where there's little to no low cost competition.

I will be interested in seeing how they handle these long flights though, which have always been said to be tough to make a profit on with the low cost model. Their expansion patterns are so erratic sometimes, it's hard to see how they can continue on, but perhaps their approach of throwing everything on the wall and seeing what sticks can help them determine which of the many many Abu Dhabi routes is a keeper. Bad passenger experience, sure, but I guess they're not too concerned.

I'm sure India/UK is subject to bilateral agreements so you can't just start such routes but I'm sure IndiGo would love to come to London with their 321XLRs so maybe that is the time for Wizzair with their similar equipment once they start to arrive.....
There is a big expansion of airports in India currently so secondary airports will welcome international connections away from the traditional trunk routes.

Why do Wizz need to do UK-India nonstop flights with all the costs and passenger expectations that go with 9 hour flights ? Couldn't they instead just build a low-budget self-connect version of Emirates' megahub in Abu Dhabi ?

Race to the bottom. It explains nicely why flying is no longer a joy but a total paIn with airports full of stressed miserable looking passengers. Maybe Wizz Air should change its name to Misery Air to reflect the customer experience of modern day travel where a small piece of luggage can cost more than a seat.

I wonder who invented that?

https://www.itv.com/news/2023-02-22/...-uk-passengers

15 years ago, the UK thought Ryanair was a terrible airline. We still booked with Ryanair because it was cheap. Wizz can sometimes give very cheap fares

For free. Anything else and the carry on bag can cost more than the human.

With 45M customers last year and rising fast, as with Ryanair a few years ago, it's not going to stop the growth.

It seems that IAG really will buy the 80% of Air Europa that they do not already own, and removes one of Iberia's main competitors.
Should Wizz be expanding significantly at Madrid, and on routes besides those to eastern Europe ? Is there space and are there slots at suitable times for such an expansion ?

I suspect the EU will force some sort of slot release at Madrid & Barcelona.
If that occurs how would they be allocated/purchased. I'm sure Lufthansa, KLM/Air France, Ryanair, Easyjet would love to scoop some up. Wizzair might not want to enter such a war but with plenty of XLRs arriving over the coming years who knows!

Wasn’t there an agreement to divest slots to Volotea?

Flights to/from Moldova to be suspended from 14 March, i.e. 2 weeks and a day from today. Some routes will see increased frequency to Iasi in Romania, just over the border
https://boardingpass.ro/wizz-air-sus...4-martie-2023/

I wonder if this is due to fears about the conflict spreading to Moldova. Their Gov keeps mentioning the Russian threat and Wizz ended up with planes trapped in Ukraine and maybe doesn’t want the same mistake again.

In English https://www.reuters.com/business/aer...ty-2023-02-27/

It was recently suggested that Moldovan airspace would be closed for security reasons.
There has also been political upheaval in Moldova in recent weeks, added to the dangers of activity from the widely-anticipated Russian spring offensive spilling over from Ukraine. I think Putin has threatened Moldova too.

Meddling via Transnistria comes to mind.

I have listened to a damming report on the BBC You and Yours radio 4 programme. The segment was in relation to what is happening at Wizz regarding compensation claims that they are still not paying and the fact that Wizzair has more complaints against them per million passengers than any other airline. The programme interviewed people who took trips last year and are owned £1000’s due to cancelled and delayed flights. They claimed that no help is being provided by call centres who don’t deal with compensation claims and emails are going unanswered.

According to the report, Wizz have failed to meet the latest CAA deadlines and that the airline is still loss making. The airline also refused to be interviewed.

I've had a claim going on with them for about 6 months, latest is that I need to write it down on a piece of paper and have it signed by the passenger...but no instructions on where to send it or if they want it scanned.

Just readying the pigeon just in case...!

OB

If the airline, any airline, is failing to comply with the law, and then failing to comply with court judgments/ CCJs then the regulator should be down on them like the proverbial ton of bricks.

If the CAA fails to do so then, aside of their safety remit they have little purpose.

Wizzair is not the only airline cancelling flights to/from Moldova. Air Moldova seems to be finding some of its leased aircraft are (seemingly at short notice), no longer available for use. I am inclined to give Wizz the benefit of the doubt on their decision to suspend Chisinau from mid March.
https://boardingpass.ro/air-moldova-...ii-avioanelor/
Apologies for using an article in Romanian rather than English, but the website has proven pretty reliable in the past, and I'm reluctant to quote English language articles on Russia-based sites when talking about Moldova

New routes and a 9th A321neo for AUH
https://wizzair.com/en-gb/informatio...ope-and-africa

Will FlyOne continue into Luton once Wizzair stop? With Air Moldova not running into STN very often (other than a Aerro Direkt) they must be happy, assuming they do not get hit by any loss in insurance cover/lessor of aircraft as well.
HiSky & SkyUp will be watching.

Having had airframes stuck in Ukraine, I would imagine Wizz insurers are a bit jumpy about Moldova?

So the CAA intervention regarding Wizz is having no affect. CCJ’s up from 533 to now 960 with 865 unsatisfied.

https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/...mers-case.html

New airport - Cairo Sphinx (no, not the main Cairo airport) about 25 miles west of Cairo. Should work nicely once the Grand Egyptian museum finally opens
First route is to Milan Malpensa, but I can see this expanding to other routes. Condor are opening a route to Germany.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphinx_International_Airport

Had to come, exactly what the airport was built for.

To be the local version of Charleroi, Bergamo, Modlin, Beauvais, Torp or Hahn?

If that is your thinking TBSC you could say Gatwick, Luton, Stansted, Southend and London City.

Why do you fly from Sharm for the day to see Sphinx & Great Pyramid from them as well?
Cario International's domestic terminal makes Luton look like a Palace!