WizzAir offer for pax affected by SkyEurope's latest cancel.

[szyszek]

Wizz Air offers to accommodate all passengers with valid bookings on flights affected by SkyEurope's latest cancellations. SkyEurope passengers can book flights for free on Wizz Air, all they need to pay are the taxes and charges.

This offer is valid on the following routes:

London-Luton Budapest
London-Luton Warsaw
Paris - Budapest

Bookings can be made on wizzair.com or through call centres (+36 1 470 9499 or +48 22 351 9499).

To begin booking your Wizz Air flight, simply insert your SkyEurope reservation code in the reservation check box below!

Terms and conditions:

Travel period: from 15 January until 5 February 2005
Taxes and charges must be paid
Seats are subject to availability
Valid SkyEurope itinerary has to be presented at check-in
Offer valid until withdrawn

[Dude320]

Something going on with Sky Europe ??

Or they just cancelled some routes ?

Rgds,

[sn26567]

Wizz Air offers to accommodate all passengers with valid bookings on flights affected by SkyEurope's latest cancellations.

Szyszek, are these cancellations permanent or temporary?

[szyszek]

To be honest, I have no idea. Wizz Air cancel a lot of flights and maybe want cover it. Recently black PR is very popular in Poland (easyJet against Wizz in November)

[lubor]

Which cancellation are you talking about?

Wizzair announced this nonsense because they are pegging out and definitely need some cash, so they use this kind of backstair practics to steal the clients.

So again – which Skyeurope flights have been cancelled????

[Advisor]

Is SkyEurope in the red. Some unconfirmed reports are doing rounds in the aviation circles.

[Aerocroatia]

I have no information that SkyEurope has canceled any flights or that they are in red. As far as I know they are doing well. 8O
On the other side Austrian Airlines has canceled its flights to London and Paris out of Bratislava because it wasn't able to compete to Sky Europe on these routes. Austrian is operating only Brussels out of Bratislava now.

[oli21]

This is an article I found on Diepresse.com (an Austrian daily).

SkyEurope considers Vienna listing
(Die Presse - Printed Edition) 05.01.2005

Christian Mandl, founder and head of Slovakian low-cost airline SkyEurope, has confirmed that the company is considering financing further expansion with a listing at the Vienna Stock Exchange. Speaking in an interview with “die Presse,” Mandl said this is “one option.” The discounters have proved tough competition for traditional airlines like the Austrian Airlines Group (AUA), which in face of the competition recently cancelled a connection between Bratislava and London and plans to axe flights to Paris later this month. SkyEurope’s passenger numbers increased fivefold to one million last year and the airline plans to introduce Nice, Copenhagen and Manchester as additional destinations over the course of the year. SkyEurope’s turnover increased from 13 to 63 million euros in 2004 and roughly every third passenger on Eastern Europe’s largest low-cost airline comes from Austria. A stock market listing in Warsaw is also considered a possibility.

And here a more detailed one in German from the same paper published on the same date (more or less it says the same thing more in detail. It also says that operations out of Bratislava and Budapest are profitable, out of Poland not yet, and on the whole the company is still loosing money).

So it does seem that Skyeurope is more or less secure. Wizzair is probably just trying to do some negative publicity to Skyeurope (Skyeurope did the same to Wizz last month, so...)

wien. Anstieg der Passagierzahlen um 500 Prozent auf knapp eine Million, Umsatzsteigerung von 13 auf 63 Mill. Euro - alles innerhalb des Jahres 2004. Diese fast nach New Economy-Zeiten klingende Erfolgsstory könnte die slowakische Billig-Airline SkyEurope schon bald Aktionären in Wien und Warschau bieten. SkyEurope-Gründer und Vorstand Christian Mandl will ein solches Szenario zwar nicht bestätigen, sagt aber im "Presse"-Gespräch: "Ein Börsegang heuer ist eine Möglichkeit."

Man dürfe als Billig-Fluglinie nicht nur die günstigste Kostenstruktur im operativen Geschäft haben, sondern auch die geringsten Finanzierungskosten. Derzeit steht die 2001 gegründete Fluggesellschaft (20 Prozent gehören den Gründern Christian Mandl und Alain Skowronek, 28 Prozent der BA- CA und der Rest einer Holding aus EBRD und ABN Amro und dem European Investment Fonds) finanziell gut da. "Wir haben keine Schulden und sind rein über Eigenkapital finanziert."

Dass die Fluglinie, deren Kunden von Pressburg aus bereits zu einem Drittel Österreicher sind, sich im Wettbewerb gut behauptet, zeigt auch ein gewonnenes Match gegen die AUA. Die österreichische Fluglinie hat die Strecke Pressburg-London Anfang Dezember wieder aufgegeben.

Mitte Jänner, so bestätigte AUA-Sprecher Hans Jurceka, wird auch die zweite Strecke Pressburg-Paris eingestellt. "Die Durchschnittserträge haben auf diesen Routen, die wir Anfang Mai 2004 aufgenommen haben, leider nicht entsprochen", so Jurceka. Nur Pressburg-Brüssel - diese Strecke fliegt SkyEurope nicht - wird weiter betrieben.

Den Grund für den Rückzug der AUA glaubt Mandl zu kennen. "Man kann nicht die österreichische Kostenstruktur in die Slowakei exportieren und mit den billigen Anbietern konkurrieren." Aus diesem Grund sieht Mandl auch in der FlyNiki langfristig keine Gefahr. Wenn Niki Lauda ab Februar auch Wien-Paris fliegt (und damit SkyEurope Konkurrenz macht), müsse FlyNiki auch die vergleichsweise mit Pressburg viel höheren Flughafengebühren in Wien wieder verdienen.

SkyEurope treibt die Expansion auch 2005 massiv voran, auch wenn Vorstand Christian Mandl betont, dass es vorerst darum gehe, die vier Drehkreuze Pressburg, Budapest, Warschau und Krakau zu festigen und auszubauen. Von Pressburg und Budapest aus schreibt SkyEurope bereits schwarze Zahlen, insgesamt mache die Fluglinie aber noch Verlust.

Heuer sind vorerst drei neue Destinationen - Nizza, Kopenhagen und Manchester - geplant. Mandl: "Das ist Teil unserer Strategie: Bevor wir ein neues Ziel eröffnen, stocken wir die Frequenzen zu bestehenden Zielen auf." Häufige Flüge - und auch die sogenannten Tagesrandverbindungen - verlangten vor allem Geschäftsleute - und die machten bereits fast ein Drittel der Passagiere aus.

Ein weiterer wichtiger Bestandteil der Strategie ist laut Mandl, eine kritische Größe zu erreichen. "Mit ein, zwei Flugzeugen kann man nicht überleben, auch wenn die Kosten noch so niedrig sind." Man braucht eine gewisse Zahl von Flugzeugen, man müsse aber auch über einen effizienten Vertrieb verfügen und eine Marke aufbauen.

Viele kleine Billig-Airlines können da nicht mit. Aus diesem Grund erwartet sich Mandl, dass in Europa nur einige wenige - etwa fünf - überleben werden. "Dazu zählen sicher Ryanair und EasyJet, eine spanische eher als eine italienische - und wir." SkyEurope sei derzeit die einzige Billig-Fluglinie mit Zentral- und Osteuropa-Kompetenz. Das zeige sich gerade beim Vertrieb. "Kreditkarten und Internet sind im Osten noch wenig verbreitet. Daher arbeiten wir auch überwiegend mit Callcentern und Banken", sagt Mandl. Während in Westeuropa rund 80 Prozent der Billig-Passagiere über das Internet buchen, bestellen 60 Prozent der SkyEurope-Kunden im Osten im Callcenter. Bezahlt - und damit fix gebucht - wird der Flug bei der Bank.

Die ganz billigen Tickets (ab 1 Euro) seien in erster Linie gedacht, um neue Kunden anzuwerben. "Wir fliegen nicht gegen andere Airlines, sondern gegen Bus und Bahn", sagt Mandl. Auch künftig werde man mit Hilfe der ganz billigen Tickets versuchen, die Auslastung, die derzeit im Schnitt bei 75 Prozent liegt, anzuheben. Um Gewinne zu machen, sei jedoch der Gesamtmix aller Ticketpreise auf einer Maschine entscheidend.

Derzeit hat SkyEurope 13 Flugzeuge, sechs Mittelstrecken-Maschinen vom Typ Embraer und sieben Boeing 737. Heuer kommen zwei Embraer weg, sieben Boeing 737 dazu. Längerfristig sollen die Embraer ganz ausgemustert und durch Boeing oder auch Airbus ersetzt werden. Die Entscheidung dazu fällt 2006.

[earthman]

The german article also states that SkyEurope will get rid of 2 of their Embraers (those silly tiny turboprops), and add 7 Boeing 737s to their fleet. In the long run they plan to get rid of the other 4 Embraers and replace them by either Boeings or Airbuses, to be decided in 2006.

[sn26567]

Embraers (those silly tiny turboprops)

SkyEurope (NE) is indeed still flying the Embraer 120 Brasilia, but this is far from being a silly turboprop. I agree it is a tiny plane for a low-cost airline, and hence it is difficult to collect enough fares to make it profitable. But it has for long been a workhorse for light-travelled short-haul routes.

[lubor]

oli21,
"Skyeurope did the same to Wizz last month" - what do you mean?

[The_Dutchman]

@ Lubor:

It was on the skyeurope website for only one or two days in the beginning of December. I still had it in my outbox, cause i emailed it to a friend of mine.


Recently published news about Wizz Air's difficulties to fulfill its current
financial obligations has raised concerns by SkyEurope about the negative
impact this signal could have on the whole low cost airline industry in
Central Europe.
The fact that Wizz Air reportedly did not pay airport taxes to Budapest
airport raises questions about its financial capabilities. On top of that it
shows unfair competitive practices, since airlines get not treated in the
same way.

Wizz Air financial constraints may be heavily connected with its inability
to raise new fresh money. Till today Wizz Air only secured 6.2 million Euro
of equity funding, which is insufficient for future operation. Announced
plans to raise further 40 million Euro of fresh capital did not succeed, as
the announced investor provided so far only a 3 million Euro convertible
loan.

Unpaid services to suppliers, a weak financial position and frequent flight
cancellations demonstrate substantial problems. Similar problems have been
experienced by Volareweb and V Bird leading to their respective bankruptcies
this year.
SkyEurope is backed by strong financial institutions, such as the European
Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Fund
(EIF), ABN AMRO Bank and Bank Austria Creditanstalt, and recently raised 10
million Euro of equity funding, as part of a 50 million Euro overall funding
programme.
SkyEurope has extensive experience as the first low cost low fare airline in
Central Europe with 3 years of successful operation and more than 1 million
carried passengers.


A few days later wizzair published on their website it received about 25 million (not really sure how much) in equity.

[lubor]

you're right, I remember now

[Dude320]

ATTN TBSC : I totally agree with you about .

It is oftently used by LCC to cancel flights due to low demand, but
later one they used this to put their competitor into a black daylight

But no statement about that...

Rgds,

[oli21]

I am very dissapointed that they've cancelled their Bergamo (Milan) - Warsaw flight just two months after its start!!!

Anyway it seems very strange that they did cancel Milan, as they were the only low cost carriers flying the route. May be they were suffering from competition from LOT and Alitalia, which have 5 flights per day between each other on this route.
Wizz hasn't introduced a route from WAW to Milan, so I assume it is because there are not enoguh slots available at WAW Etiuda termanial.

Skyeurope has instead kept Milan-Krakow, where they are competing with Wizz (flying from Katowice) and soon with Alitalia (starting next March flying daily from Malpensa). Strange too!!!

Regarding the fact that they've cut their flight from BUD to ZRH this is probably because ZRH airport has increased airport taxes (Easyjet left this airport altoghether).

[The_Dutchman]

@Wizzair employee:

I don't want to take part in this discussion as my company is involved, but :

Budapest - Zurich - all flights cnld from SEP2004
Budapest - Warsaw 2xdaily - all flights cnld after DEC2004
Prague-Kosice - will be cnld from March2005
Warsaw-Milan - all flights cnld from 10JAN2005

This topic was about (unexpected)-cancelations by skyeurope for which Wizzair offered help to the passengers.

BUT all the flight you name are just routes which were discontinued. No tickets had been sold (to the best of my knowledge) for these flights. No passengers have been "hurt" by this action. And if Skyeurope thinks they can make more money when flying to different airports, they should....

So what you said it is not relevant in this topic

Some individual passengers might not like it that they do not fly to some destinations anymore. (e.g. I really don't like the fact that they don't fly anymore between warsaw and budapest, and it is hard to believe for me that they probably didn't make enough money on this flight )