Eastern European Aviation

[Charlie Roy]

The newcomers of Eastern European Aviation :ok:
Aviation in Eastern Europe is witnessing unprecedented expansion thanks to EU enlargement. The main low cost players are WizzAir, SkyEurope and Central Wings. Ryanair are also a very important carrier and are set to significantly increase their presence in Poland and the Baltics. Easyjet on the other hand have made the strategic mistake of as good as ignoring the opportunities in Eastern Europe. They've also recently dropped Berlin to Ljubljana, and are going to give up on Luton to Bratislava too. Are Easyjet's days in Eastern Europe numbered?

Blood bath? :ouch:
Norwegian are newcomers in the Polish market, but will their name prove a disservice? SmartWings are just about hanging on for dear life in the Czech Republic, where they offer a low cost product, and are now trying to muscle in on the Hungarian market in desperation, despite the fact that WizzAir and SkyEurope are very comfortably installed there already.

Flag carriers :ugh:
And what about the LOT's, the CzechAirlines, the Air Malta's of the EU's new countries? Will they survive the onslaught of the LCC's? Are they trying to remodel, restructure, rebrand? And what aren't they doing that they should be doing?

EU enlargement: Work Permits :D
Since EU enlargement Eastern Europeans didn't need work permits anymore for three countries: Sweden, Ireland and the UK. This has translated itself into an abundance of new routes joining these countries
to Eastern Europe. Now Finland, Spain and Portugal are opening their borders to Eastern European workers aswell.
Have the airlines been quick to react? Will this reduce the attractiveness/popularity of the UK, Ireland and Sweden with our new EU citizens?

Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia :cool:
These countries are set to become EU members in 2007, 2008 and 2010 respectively. WizzAir were first on the ball and also have big plans; especially for Bucarest in Romania. Now SkyEurope have announced they will compete with WizzAir on Bucharest - Rome and Bucharest - Budapest! I don't even know what traditional carriers are doing these routes too! Both Wizz and Sky are already implanting themselves in Bulgaria and
Croatia too.
Have Ryanair missed the boat here? Or will they come along, steal WizzAir's and SkyEurope's hard earned customers, and storm the pair out of the market?


Maybe Eastern European Aviation deserves a thread as it's one area where there is a lot happening right now, and things are only hotting up!

[Charlie Roy]

It has emerged that Wizzair plan to launch 13 destinations from Bratislava airport next year. Currently, they do not operate any routes from Bratislava. However their biggest competitor SkyEurope have their headquarters and biggest base there. :p

This will most certainly mark an intensification of the war between WizzAir and SkyEurope :\

Source:
http://hnonline.sk/1-10138500-18904830-k0S000_detail-34
"Wizzair Plans to Fly to 13 Destinations from Bratislava Next Year
Hungarian low-cost airlines Wizzair may join the group of air companies operating from Bratislava airport next year. “We are holding very intensive negotiations with this company. Wizzair is planning to fly to 13 destinations from Bratislava,” Bratislava airport executive director Milan Kajan told the press on Monday. These should also include destinations to which no air company currently runs flights from Bratislava, for example Stockholm, Malmo, Glasgow, Liverpool or Dortmund. But it also wants to operate flights to destinations already served from Bratislava, for example London, Paris, Barcelona, Athens, Rome and Brussels."

So it seems Luton, Prestwick, Liverpool, Charleroi and Beauvais amongst others could get routes to Bratislava with Wizz ;)

In the Luton thread yesterday I deemed it highly unlikely that Wizz would ever set foot in Bratislava. I was WRONG, sorry :(

[LGS6753]

In Western Europe, Ryanair is the "lowest cost provider", and usually offers the lowest fares. It markets its product well, especially through regional airports, and has "first mover advantage" in many of these markets.
In Eastern Europe however, Ryanair has less (if any) of a cost advantage. Wizz seem to be successful in the routes they open, seem fairly well funded and are developing in a steady and measured manner. Sky Europe also seem fairly well established but a bit less successful in opening new routes.
CentralWings are probably suffering from being the off-spring of a legacy carrier.
It's certainly shaping up to be an interesting battle, and Wizz and Ryan are currently winning.
Funnily enough, I can see why Easy have left Bratislava. It's a small city, served by a based loco (Sky E), and probably offers fairly low yields. Easy can see that adding another Luton to Edinburgh rotation probably offers more profit than a longer flight to Bratislava. Easy increasingly look most comfortable competing with legacy carriers on trunk routes, and following their early "join the dots" strategy.

[Hawk]

Thanks Charlie for starting this new thread. I've changed the title around a bit to reflect the general format in this forum. If we start to get sufficient posts on individual eastern european airlines the moderators might look at splitting the thread up a bit later. Carry on.
Thank you
AA&R Mods.

[airhumberside]

Flag carriers :ugh:
And what about the LOT's, the CzechAirlines, the Air Malta's of the EU's new countries? Will they survive the onslaught of the LCC's? Are they trying to remodel, restructure, rebrand? And what aren't they doing that they should be doing?
I think most of these airlines will be OK and should survive. They will have to focus on connections and long haul routes though. Flag carriers/traditional airlines in Western European have got through the arrival of low cost airlines so with a good business plan I think those in Eastern Europe can.

Taking the example of LOT. They have set up Centralwings to take on the Low Cost Airlines directly. They have given routes to Centralwings that have heavy Low Cost competition and that aren't a vital part of their network, such as Krakow-LGW. And they are have ordered B787's as they make transatlantic routes with no low cost airline competition more of a priority for them

[WHBM]

[U][B] Easyjet on the other hand have made the strategic mistake of as good as ignoring the opportunities in Eastern Europe.
I don't think this is correct. In addition to their other destinations in the region Easy have established a substantial operation at Prague, which probably is the No 1 destination anyone would want to serve in the old Eastern bloc.

[The SSK]

Since EU enlargement Eastern Europeans didn't need work permits anymore for three countries: Sweden, Ireland and the UK. This has translated itself into an abundance of new routes joining these countries

I think this is the key statement. MOR famously once said that the Polish market held no interest for Ryanair because the UK market wouldn't be interested to travel there because there was nothing to see 'except maybe the Gdansk shipyard wall' (excuses for probable misquoting).
What he hadn't reckoned with at the time was the creation of a significant market in the UK and Ireland, of immigrants making home visits. At LoCo prices they can afford to travel frequently, boosting the passenger numbers. They are probably an insignificant market segment for the likes of BA, but much more interesting to, say, LOT, who have to come up with a competitive response.
Aviation in Eastern Europe is witnessing unprecedented expansion thanks to EU enlargement. The main low cost players are WizzAir, SkyEurope and Central Wings
Don't forget that Europe's LoCo population consists of two moneymakers and a hell of a lot of losers.

[Charlie Roy]

So Ryanair announced their first Croatian route today. Standsted to the beautiful seaside resort of PULA in North Western Croatia.

Ryanair's website was also straight away available in Croatian suggesting they have been planning this for a while. Interesting choice Pula...
All the other low costs (with the exception of Flyglobespan) fly to the Croatian coastal airports of Rijeka, Zadar, Split and Dubrovnik...

Anyone have info if Ryanair was/is also in negotiations with these airports?

Meanwhile, SkyEurope are really going all out to increase their Croatian traffic. They are offering the possibility now to book flights from a lot of their destinations via their hubs to their Croatian destinations!

And any idea of how Aer Lingus are performing on their Dublin - Dubrovnik route? Picking some random dates in August, I see their seat maps are already quite full! ;)
They'll be dropping it for the winter though it seems... :(

I think it will be difficult to keep Croatian seaside destinations going year round. They have cold winters in Croatia, unlike say Southern Spain for example...

[Charlie Roy]

As expected, Riga airport's passenger figures are soaring from their previously modest levels.

http://www.boarding.no/art.asp?id=22480
"Riga Airport experienced a 39,6 % growth in the number of passengers during the first 6 months of 2006 compared to the same period in 2005"

What is very interesting to find, is that after London, Dublin is the second most popular destination from Riga! Amazing how things change in just a couple of years.

This winter Ryanair will increase Dublin - Riga from 4 to 6 weekly flights.
Aer Lingus will decrease Dublin - Riga from 4 to 3 weekly flights.
And AirBaltic will decrease Dublin - Riga from 7 to 4 weekly flights.

In contrast, Estonia Air are dropping their Tallinn to Dublin service, which will leave the route unserved. :confused:
Who is likely to step in and fill their shoes? Ryanair?

Irish Independent (July 18th):
"Ryanair eyes Estonia link
RYANAIR wants to fly to the Estonian capital, Tallinn, and is in talks with the Baltic country's economy ministry and city airport, according to media reports.
Discussions centre on setting the number of passengers Ryanair can carry and how much the carrier will pay to the airport."

[Charlie Roy]

Strange, the wizzair website doesn't exist anymore! Bankrupt? Doubt it. They'd wanna sort this out though. Fast! :\

[Aussie]

Hey on the topic, anyone know how Centralwings are doing? From what i heard from people inside, they tell me its on the verge of folding.... its not making any money, but a loss!!

Anyone know?

Aussie

[Charlie Roy]

Well LOT's last low cost airline Air Polonia couldn't succeed, so I have never been overly confident about the prognosis for Central Wings :(

Some of their summer routes are rather obscure and I'm surprised that they would be profitable. And regarding their routes in general, they are forever chopping and changing so it must be difficult for them to build up any loyal customers.

If they are going to fold, I hope it wouldn't happen close to Christmas time thereby stranding a lot of Poles on their way home... And in the longer term I have no doubt that Wizz, Sky Europe and Ryanair would pick up a good proportion of any abandoned Central routes.

I too have read Central are struggling financially, but so too are Sky Europe and to a lesser extent Wizz. For example, if Ryanair launch a base at Krakow then this will pose an enormous challenge to Sky Europe. I'm surprised, in fact, that Ryanair haven't done this already.

As is often the case, Central Wings don't outwardly have the appeareance of an airline of the verge of collapse. Their host of new/extra routes for winter will be possible due to a recently acquired ex-LOT B737-400, and they will also shortly lease an ex-EasyJet B737-300 (from Luton) which will reportedly be used in the introduction of routes to Moscow amongst others.

Anybody have any info on possible Central Wings routes to Moscow? Would we only see Poland to Moscow routes?

Source: CH-Aviation

[wawkrk]

Centralwings/LOT, could not organise a p*** up in a brewery.

[Aussie]

Thanks Charlie Roy!

In that case, anyone know if Wizz, Sky or Centrawings are recruting???????
What about terms and Conditions at these airlines?

Aussie

While we admire your zeal there is a forum called Wannabees on this website which is more suitable to your question(s).