Wizz strengthened

[LGS6753]

Wizzair yesterday announced a new 25m Euro financing package by its original investors, Indigo Partners.
(see www.wizzair.com).

The investors are obviously satisfied with performance, and have put their money where their mouth is.

However, there seems to be over-capacity in Poland/East Europe, so who is suffering?
Does anyone know how SkyEurope and Air Polonia are doing, for example? What are their load factors like from Stansted? They (like Wizz) seem to be cancelling lots of flights in recent weeks.

Not on the attack, just interested.

[LTNman]

Does Wizz have a licence to operate their Airbuses in CAT 3A or CAT 3B conditions? Friday morning saw RVR’s at Luton of around the 200-300m mark. All three inbound Wizz aircraft were delayed by several hours.

[Splat]

LTNman

What has your post got to do with the subject matter?

Every post of yours seems to be having a pop at Wizz, care to elaborate why?

Cheers

Splat

[LTNman]

Not aware that I have ever had a pop at Wizz. Might have had a pop at their handling agents but not Wizz. Care to elaborate!:confused:

[The Greaser]

They'd better get used to long delays in Luton if they are not Cat III equipped.

[ebenezer]

They'd better get used to long delays in Luton if they are not Cat III equipped.

The aircraft that WIZZ uses are all equipped to Cat 3 standard; both ILS installations at Luton are approved to Cat 3b.

The mismatch comes when one (or both) WIZZ pilots are not either current or are not yet approved, to carry out Cat 3 approaches and the weather is such that Cat 3 is required.

During easyJet's early years with the 737-300 and later marques, there were occasions when an aircraft was unable to operate because one or both pilots were not 'signed off'.

Guess WIZZ will get there eventually, but agreed it's desirable to have all crews fully checked out and signed off so that disruption doesn't occur, especially if easyJet flights on similar routes are arriving without difficulty whilst WIZZ flights are either delayed or diverted.

The problem will be reflected at all airports across the WIZZ network, not just Luton, if Cat 3 weather conditions prevail.

Let's hope the airline's flight ops management gets on top of the issue ASAP and sorts it out before the punters vote with their feet...

:uhoh:

[AIRWAY]

Ohh Luton and Wizzair... ;) I was orbiting ( holding ) just before landing ( was number 4 ) and i had to try and get a visual of a Wizzair A320 on approach.
----
Their operation seems to be going well and they have some stability, but in aviation you never know. If the investors decided to spalsh some more cash they must have a good reason for it. Good luck to them.

Cheers
Airway

PS - By the way is there new controllers being supervised at LTN? Or is it my imagination that i kept hearing different voices on the radios :confused:

[LTNman]

During easyJet's early years with the 737-300 and later marques, there were occasions when an aircraft was unable to operate because one or both pilots were not 'signed off'.

I’m sure someone will correct me if I am wrong but easyJet initially flew on another carriers operating licence. When they got their own licence they were initially not allowed to fly CAT 3 approaches so it was the airline that was restricted and not necessarily the pilots. Could this be the same case with Wizz?

[ebenezer]

so it was the airline that was restricted and not necessarily the pilots.

The 737 aircraft that were originally flown by easyJet under another's AOC were not Cat 3 equipped.

The situation regarding WIZZ is almost certainly down to pilot currency/approval although it's also possible that the airline doesn't yet meet JAA Cat 3 requirements (one of which relates to flight crew training and currency, and the other to having satisfactory and approved Ops Manual procedures).

This however seems odd, given that the weather in eastern Europe isn't exactly clear blue sky year round...

No doubt they're working on it!

:ok:

[wizzard01]

It's not all that complicated:

Any new airline is not allowed to fly CAT II/III approaches in the first 6 months of operation. Approval is a matter of time. Most pilots are qualified.

Recency can be solved in only 3 approaches......

[infernettto]

Folks, to let you know, wizzair is allowed to go for CAT III a from now on.

[CAP670]

Good news! Just in time for the Luton winter fogs...

And now that Ryanair rarely if ever operates its 737-200's into Luton, maybe the Luton/Dublin service will at last also, be more reliable in Luton's poor winter weather...

:ok:

[we_never_change]

The Luton - Dublin is now operated by a Luton based B737-800 wheras it was previously operated by a Dublin based B737-200

WNC

[OLNEY 1 BRAVO]

WNC .... the 737-200 was also Luton based.