Wizz Air in 2015

[sn26567]

Wizz Air to debut A321 operations this November

Wizz Air is planning to commence A321 operations with effect from November 20 onwards, ch-aviation can exclusively reveal. Information at hand indicates the Hungarian budget carrier will deploy its maiden aircraft of the type on a 3x daily Budapest-London Luton service while the second aircraft will be used on daily flights from Budapest to Brussels Charleroi, Eindhoven, and Istanbul Sabiha Gökcen from December 16 onwards. Thereafter, effective February 26, the third twinjet will be used to serve Stockholm Skavsta, Tel Aviv Ben Gurion, Alicante and Maastricht as well.

In September 2013, Wizz Air converted twenty-six out of its ninety A320-200 orders with Airbus Industrie into A321-200s.

Source: ch-aviation

[MrG4]

New livery

[sn26567]

New livery and new uniforms inaugurated today in Budapest.

[MrG4]

Nice video about the new livery http://www.airportal.hu/ap/viewtopic.php?t=26873

[sn26567]

[airazurxtror]

One never quite knows if it's Wizzair or Wizz Air - in one or two words.
On the aircraft, it's "wizzair.com" but also "WIZZ".
On their website, one finds "wizz offers", "Wizz Air", "wizzair.com", "my Wizz" ...

[KriVa]

I'd say it's quite clearly Wizz Air.
Brussels Airlines also has brusselsairlines.com as web address, but the space is still there when written fully.
The "Wizz offers", "My Wizz" and relevant others only support the idea of it being split up.
(The title of their website also states Wizz Air). I'd say it's fairly obvious, to be honest...

[airazurxtror]

Wizz Air today promised lower fuel prices would lead to lower fares as it announced a 67% jump in annual profit to €146 million (£103m).
The Eastern European carrier said it was confident profits would grow further this year as it plans to further increase its capacity, expecting to make a post-tax profit of €165 million to €175 million in the current financial year to March 31 2016.

[airazurxtror]

Wizz Air has announced a 20 percent rise in passengers for May 2015, in comparison to the same month last year. Passenger numbers were up 1.6 million from 1.3 million last year, helped by the introduction of two new A320 aircraft.

Load factor was up to 89 percent from 87.5 percent the previous year, with capacity up to 1.8 million seats, an increase of 18 percent from 1.5 million in May 2014.

Wizz Air has announced another new route to Dubai from its Cluj-Napoca base from December 19, 2015.
The airline will operate the route twice-weekly on Tuesdays and Saturdays to Dubai World Central Airport.

European low-cost carrier, Wizz Air has announced another new route to Dubai from its Cluj-Napoca base from December 19, 2015.
The airline initially began serving Dubai in 2013 when it launched four routes to Dubai World Central Airport from Budapest, Bucharest, Kiev and Sofia.

[airazurxtror]

Wizz Air has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for 110 A321neo aircraft.
Significantly the order includes the latest A321neo Airbus Cabin Flex configuration with 239 seats in 18 inch comfort standard.

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines_press_r ... -aircraft/

"Thanks to our rapidly growing A320 fleet, we’ve become one of Europe’s leading carriers,” said Jozsef Varadi, CEO of Wizz Air. “The A321neo is clearly the leading single aisle aircraft and the best platform regarding operating economics to support our ambitious growth plans.”

[airazurxtror]

Wizz Air said passenger numbers last month increased by 18 per cent to 1,728 million, from 1,463 million a year earlier. The load factor was 90,8 per cent, up from 89,7 per cent.
Wizz Air also expanded its fleet, base and route network including:
• Two new bases opened in Slovakia (Kosice), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Tuzla)
• One new destination added: Birmingham, Wizz Air’s eighth UK destination
• Five new routes added: (x1) Hungary, (1x) Poland, (x2) Moldova, (x1) Romania
• Three new A320’s have been added to its fleet bringing the current fleet to 62 A320 aircraft

https://wizzair.com/en-GB/about_us/news/wizzen332

[Passenger]

Press release European Commission: "State aid: Commission opens in-depth investigations into Romanian measures in favour of two airports and airlines"

The European Commission has opened two separate in-depth investigations to examine if measures in favour of two publicly-owned airports in Transylvania, Romania (Cluj-Napoca International Airport and Târgu Mureş Transilvania Airport) and airlines operating there (notably Wizz Air) are in line with EU State aid rules. The investigations concern in particular marketing fees paid to Wizz Air by Cluj-Napoca International Airport and low airport charges offered by Târgu Mureş Transilvania Airport to airlines operating there. Furthermore, the Commission will also investigate subsidies by local authorities to the airports themselves. The opening of proceedings gives interested parties an opportunity to submit comments on the measures under assessment. It does not prejudge the outcome of the investigation.

Margrethe Vestager, Commissioner in charge of competition policy, commented: "There is intense pan-European competition in the aviation sector. Therefore, the Commission must ensure that airport charges and other conditions offered by public regional airports to attract airlines do not distort the level playing field in the market. Our investigations will show if the Romanian measures in favour of the two airports and airlines are in line with EU state aid rules”.

Continues here:
http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-5458_en.htm

[airazurxtror]

Wizz Air reported a record first quarter profit of €33.9 million, an increase of 14.7 percent, while total revenues were up by 21 percent to €1.2 billion. As a result, Wizz Air is raising its full-year net profit expectations to €175-185 million – a €10 million improvement on previous estimates.

Passengers carried increased 20 percent to 4.9 million, while the airline’s route network has continued to grow with the opening of two new bases and 22 new routes.
Load factor also increased by 1.3 percentage points to 88.8 percent in the first quarter, one of the highest in the industry.

https://wizzair.com/en-GB/about_us/news/wizzen336

[airazurxtror]

Low-cost carrier Wizz Air launches flights from Sofia to 4 new destinations in March 2016. The new destinations include Alicante in Spain, Bristol in the UK, Hamburg Lubeck in Germany, and Oslo in Norway, the company announced at a press conference on Wednesday.
The tickets for the 4 new destinations are on sale and the flights start March 27, 2016.
Wizz Air also plans to increase the number of flights to existing destinations, with flights from Sofia to London Luton Airport to go up from 18 to 21 per week, flights to Brussels Charleroi and Eindhoven to increase from 4 to 5, and to Malmo from 2 to 3.

- See more at: http://www.novinite.com/articles/170231 ... VkdSK.dpuf

[airazurxtror]

Wizz Air has lifted passenger numbers by 20 per cent for July compared with the same period in 2014. The airline had 1.97m passengers in July this year, up from 1.64m passengers in July 2014. Wizz Air increased its load factor, by 1.1 percentage points to 92.7 per cent from 91.6 per cent.

The airline said in the rolling 12 months to 31 July 2015, passenger numbers were up by 20 per cent to 17.64m. In July, the company took delivery of its 63rd brand new A320 from Airbus.

The peak summer season also brought enhancements and changes by Wizz Air to its customers, including the option of bringing a second personal item such as a handbag or briefcase on board as well as the small or large cabin bag chosen during the booking process.

[airazurxtror]

Low-cost carrier Wizz Air saw August passenger carryings rise by 19%.

Numbers were up to 1.990.323 passengers in the month against 1.672.682 in August 2014.

The load factor increased by one percentage point to 93.2%.

The August numbers gave the airline a rolling annual total of 17,966 million passengers, a 20% rise year-on-year.

https://wizzair.com/en-GB/about_us/news/wizzen342

[airazurxtror]

British budget airline EasyJet announced on Sept. 11 that it is stopping flights from London to Moscow from March 21, 2016.
The only budget airline operating on routes to Moscow will be Hungary's Wizzair (from Budapest and Kiev).

[sn26567]

The Wizz Air board has approved the agreement with Airbus for the purchase of 110 A321neo aircraft. Now it's up for shareholder approval.

[airazurxtror]

Speaking at the World Low Cost Airlines Congress in London, Wizz Air, CEO Joszef Varadi, explained why in the long-run, for the short-haul market, maintaining low costs and low fares is key to the survival of an airline.

“Cost is critical,” Varadi said. “This is a business which is becoming a commodity. Short-haul flying is a commodity. This is like the Wall-Marts, the Aldis in the UK. The business must remain focused on costs because otherwise you will have a problem sooner or later.”

Varadi believes Wizz Air’s ultra low-cost model should be flyer friendly, but it mustn’t be wasteful.
“We have always said that a smile does not cost money, and we have always approached the customer experience side of the business in a positive way. We don’t have to make the corrections that Ryanair has recently been making,” Varadi said. “We remain focused on the customer experience.”
But the customer experience improvements must come from personal attention and from digital innovations to simplify the bookings and travel process. They won’t come from service or product extras.

Newer generations of flyers are less focused on the extras that older generations expect with their ticket. “The world has changed around us and keeps changing around us. The new generations coming to the market are very different than older generations. The old generations used to go to full operators, getting personal advice, now everything is separate on the internet, on various devices. The smart phones are changing the game, as well as the specific technologies.”

Varadi sees the marketplace today as positive, buffered in part by lower fuel costs, and believes there is a risk to airlines of forgetting fundamentals that keep them flying during market reversals.
“These are good times, even those legacy carriers that have been losing money over the past 20 years are now in the black,” Varadi said. “I think we all enjoy good times. The real question is, given the state of the industry: how do you use this time to prepare yourself for the weaker times coming? We know this is a cyclical industry and you need to stand on your feet when times are worse.”

Varadi said he focuses more on ensuring that Wizz Air grows its market base, than on whatever competitors are up to.
“I don’t really care about market share, ours or theirs. We keep stimulating the market. This is still a market where people are just starting into the franchise of flying. I’m much more interested in getting those people in. We can do that by offering the lowest fares in the market, so long as we can sustain it by operating the business at the lowest possible cost,” he said.

The key, Varadi said, is to remain open to change and to quickly adapt to new consumer trends.

Read more :
http://skift.com/2015/09/28/interview-w ... an-afford/

[airazurxtror]

Wizz Air now expects a net profit of 190 million to 200 million euros ($213.8 million-$225.1 million), excluding items, in the 2016 financial year.
The company earlier expected a net profit of 175 million to 185 million euros for the year.

The airline, however, cautioned on lower unit revenues continuing through the second half of the year ending March 2016, as lower fuel prices led to reduced air fares.

Wizz Air joins peers easyJet and Ryanair in raising forecasts as airlines capitalize on record demand for beach holidays across Europe and lower oil prices.