Doncaster Sheffield-3
 

According to Twitter, Wizz have reduced the base to one aircraft and removed the following from sale:
Eindhoven
Fuerteventura
Gran Canaria
Lisbon
Malaga
Suceava

Some surprises there, but I guess the demand for these flights just isn't there.

With the current situation regarding travel, and the longer term uncertainties, I'm amazed that there is a demand for travel anywhere.
On the specifics of the DSA flights, we live about 40 minutes from the airport, so in the prime catchment area. I would not have been aware that Wizz were starting the new holiday routes, if it were not for this forum. A complete absence of local PR and marketing is not going to put bums on seats.

wowzz

From what I understand, booking were extremely poor right from the get go. Even when the restrictions on the Canary Islands were lifted - whereas at other airports this hasn't necessarily been the case.

Somewhat selective retelling of what was posted on Twitter too by Timmyw. Nowhere was a reduction in aircraft mentioned. Also not all of those routes are completely pulled.

TimmyW

I've said it before elsewhere, and been shot down in flames, but I'll say it again. Presently you've got to be slightly daft to give a private business any money up front for anything, everyone's finances are iffy, and there's absolutely no guarantee that you'll get your money back in a timely manner if things get cancelled, or perhaps not at all if the business to whom you've entrusted your hard earned money goes belly up. I personally will not give anyone any of my money upfront at the moment, whether it be for a restaurant reservation for an upcoming celebration, hotel, airline, ferry or train operator. Travel planning is well and truly on hold until I see where we are at on two fronts, primarily Covid-19, but second, Brexit.

I appreciate that in doing so, I and many others are putting businesses and people's livelihoods in jeopardy, but I am not a charity.

Looks like it’s a case of switching destinations. Heraklion, Dalaman and Bourgas now added all twice weekly.

Update on the Wizz reductions

TimmyW

Well, if there was no advertising, it's not surprising that bookings were low from the outset.
And, the flight timings were not that great either, which didn't help matters.

Extra frieght business due border issues
 

Lufthansa 77F currently inbound from Frankfurt carrying produce for supermarkets.

Just doing some maths on the back of a fag packet. When I drove trucks with refrigerated trailers, payload would be anything from 5 ton (for light stuff, such as cress, salad, etc), to around 26 ton (for heavy and dense frozen stuff such as pizzas, ice cream, etc).

A 777F has a cargo capacity of 102 ton. My educated guess is that this 777 has carried roughly the same as 7 or 8 loaded artics.

And with thousands of trucks that were or are stuck in Kent, as you can imagine it’s a small drop in the ocean. I would love to see 500 777Fs coming into the UK every day though. It would be like the Berlin Airlift.

Great for the cargo operations reputation at the airport.

Ukraine Wings 767, Rada IL62, Magma/Astral, Cargolux, Silkway 747, Etihad 777 and now this makes an interesting week for cargo.

Quite a few of the animals at Doncaster Wildlife Park arrived by air. Lions and tigers and bears - oh my!

Certainly interesting with Rada & their `62 as it appears to have a propensity to carry out R/W excursions on landing & latterly a touch of forestry on departure!

The IL-62 is famous on You Tube with departures, hope Robin Hood was not hiding in the trees, he would have got a haircut like friar tuck!

They now have two IL 62s.

Twice the opportunities then for a little light "gardening" & "forestry".

EW-505TR IL-62 passed over Hampshire last night on route to Donny. I wondered what on earth it was, speculating a non CFM 707 or maybe a B-52. Delighted to see on Plane Finder it was a VC-10ski!

Interesting info from one report, should be a busy month.

"Doncaster Sheffield Airport told the BBC that in January, the "planned increase" in the number of flights of perishable goods had risen from three a week to eight.

The airport will be handling 700 tonnes a week in food freight, up from 300 tonnes a week. However, the airport said the increase was due to companies wanting to mitigate anticipated Brexit congestion, rather than the current issues at Dover."

One company alone has received enquiries for over 300 flights.

Lucrative for those airports who will engage, especially if LHR is closed as well.

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/20...rench-blockade

https://www.lse.co.uk/news/british-airways-cargo-staff-set-strike-over-pay-from-christmas-day-ulax13djjdq438c.html

Looking at the CAA foreign carrier permits issued: https://www.caa.co.uk/Commercial-ind...ermits-issued/

Etihad have five Doncaster flights scheduled in January (4th, 5th, 11th, 18th and 25th), all scheduled to arrive at 2325.

Couldn't see a permit for the IL62.

Malaga and Suceava bookable again.

Looks like Malaga had a timing change to the morning instead.

Eindhoven and Lisbon axed. Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria going winter seasonal (as mentioned above)

Bourgas, Dalaman, Heraklion, and Palma Mallorca new routes for summer.

Overall a positive result.

It seems to me that any routes released right now are optimistic. Proof will be delivered when things return closer to normal..

DSA at least has relatively low overheads and is ticking over...

N707ZS

I think it was issued on 17th Dec

Ten Air Atlanta 747 flights this past week shows a real demand for imports - usually three weekly.

it could be a result of the supermarkets switching from EU supplies to Additional non-EU sources while things sort themselves out at the border.

...or supermarkets bypassing Dover.

Some more interesting cargo movements afoot.

E-Cargo 757 VP-BHM due to do a daily run to Paris Vatry for the next month from Friday.
CAL Cargo 747 due on Saturday.
Challenge Airlines 747 due in later next week.

wowzz

You really shouldn’t post on here when you have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. The bookings have been good, it’s the reason they moved the based aircraft from A320s to A321s it’s also the reason they have added new routes and are now looking to recruit local cabin crew - note that flight crew are already based at DSA.

I do not understand your mindset of posting continuously negative and uninformed dribble on a public forum that has about 25 readers.

The routes weren't really new were they? They replaced some summer ones with new ones, moving the replaced ones to winter only. But spin it how you want.

Spin it. Haha.

You said the bookings were extremely poor from the get go - wrong completely wrong. As are the vast majority of your posts. In reality you have no idea what is going on with Wizz, yet talk like you do and spend your time chatting nonsense.. You can’t blame lockdown for your puzzling behaviour either as you’ve been at it for years. Bizarre.

Crikey - after almost 5 weeks since I posted, I'm glad you have finally made the effort to reply.
I can't see why you are saying my post was negative. As someone who lives near DSA, I dearly want it to succeed, and if Wizz helps in that success, fine. My point, was that ,living as I do in the DSA catchment area, it was disappointing not to have seen more advertising from Wizz, supporting their new routes. Still, if you think that is negative, that's your problem not mine.
I look forward to your reply sometime in March!

wowzz

I think the point about lack of advertising is relevant.
As someone who lives in South Wales, aside from a few social media posts from CWL and Wizz themselves, there's been hardly any advertising. They are relatively unknown in Wales and the Southwest apart from the few Eastern European routes they did from Bristol.

Times have changed and airline marketing spend has evolved. As recently as ten years ago, it was generally essential to know the name of the airline which operated your preferred route. Then you could check their company website to view availability and fares. Now you no longer need to know the brand names of operators on any route. If you log on to any of the large flight aggregator websites (or do a google search), they will do this job for you - and this has become the default flight search tool for much of the direct online booking market. Simply enter route and dates on these websites and a comprehensive list of fares appears, ranked by either price or duration of journey (you tailor the preferences). Customers then select the combination which best suits their needs, and with one click they are redirected to the website of the operator or agency offering the deal.

No need to know the brand name of carriers serving the route any more. And conversely, little need for those airlines to spend a fortune raising local brand awareness. If you do happen to know the name of the carrier you wish to book with, then you can of course book directly via the company's own website as before. But if you don't know which airline operates the route you wish to fly - or what your best interlining options might be - these comparison sites do the legwork for you in moments. And furthermore, if you're only aware of one amongst multiple carriers on a route, you may not secure the best deal available if you don't check with a flight comparison website before booking. Knowledge which was once the exclusive preserve of the most experienced travel consultants has been democratised by the internet. It's a level playing field out there now. Brand awareness is no longer the issue it used to be for less well known carriers. Anyone with average computer skills can easily find the airline's deals anyway.

Whilst I agree with the points to some degree, that isn't always the case. Using Cardiff as an example again, there is a lot of leakage to Bristol, mainly because people default to Easyjet and Ryanair.
Its also been commented that some holiday websites aren't selling holidays using Wizz.

Similarly there is a huge push with South Wales Travel Agents for the new Jet2 holidays from Bristol, with little push for using CWLs Airlines for holidays, such as TUI, Vueling and more recently Wizz.
So I do think brand awareness is needed in some cases as people may not even think to search for flights from Cardiff and automatically type in Bristol when searching. I'm sure DSA may be in a similar situation with MAN, EMA and LBA not too far away.

wowzz

My comments were aimed at Timmy, the quote just had your name at the start. Sorry for the confusion. He has plagued this chat for years.

They have started advertising on the radio now btw, so it’s a start.

Thank you for the clarification. I must admit I did feel a bit peeved when I read your original reply to me!
Good news about the radio ads.

OzzyOzBorn

It may not be as important to advertise the airline, but its still important to advertise the destination, especially when it comes to tourist destinations. A lot of people pick their holiday destinations based on whats available from the local airport - without advertising they'll automatically go to Tenerife or Paris/Amsterdam for city destinations. But if you launch a campaign and tell them that they can also go to Gdansk and Budapest etc. then some people will decide to try those destinations for a change. Additionally, some might assume they cant get to those destinations from their local airports, and so search from nearby larger airports instead without even considering it.

Advertising is still crucial for the success of a route.

Even when it comes to brand awareness, it's still very much a thing. Given the choice to fly between Ryanair and Some-airline-you've-never-heard of, guess which wins? Even if Ryanair are slightly more expensive, people will pay the extra rather than risk an airline they know nothing about. A lot of people are nervous fliers, and just dont want to risk an unknown airline.

There's probably little point pushing advertising for this summer now.

Wizz do a lot of 'advertising' via social media.