With IAG’s LEVEL moving into Vienna and starting operations last week – Wizz Air is responding.
And responding fast – by launching routes a lot earlier than originally announced
Wizz Air Airbus A321 Birmingham Airport, Image, Economy Class and Beyond
Wizz Air are pulling forward the following route launches from Vienna:
- Catania commences 25th November 2018 instead of 23rd February 2019
- Kutaisi commences 11th October instead of 15th November
- Lisbon commences 25th November 2018 instead of 22nd February 2019
- Nice commences 26th November, instead of 22 February
The services are spinning up with lower frequencies than they were offering with their inital launch dates. You’ll need to check RoutesOnline and the Wizz Air site to check availability (and the advance launches are already showing in the Wizz Air Booking engine
Vienna to Lisbon
Vienna to Nice.
Vienna is turning into a low-cost battle ground after the collapse of Niki last year (not aided by airBerlin’s failure).
With Laudamotion (doing some of Ryanairs work), Wizz Air, Eurowings and LEVEL all fighting for passengers – as well as legacy carrier Austrian Airlines all fighting for passengers, Wizz Air is doing its bit to try to carve out its own dedicated base of traffic.
The big question is can Vienna sustain the amount of traffic being thrown at it? And of course, the other question is who will be the first to bow out?
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In short, no. By next year there will be a big shakeout in VIE. While Vienna is a very popular tourist destination the local population will not support the current number of low-cost carriers/flights/seat capacity. Budapest is too close. Bratislava would have been a better airport for Wizz to set up camp. Landing fees are cheaper and it’s less crowded overall. Connections from Bratislava to Vienna are easy via train, one hour or so. Also, there is still planning/discussion about VIE’s third runway and the costs to airlines will grow as the expenses mount, ditto terminal expansion plans. Lufthansa Group, via Eurowings/Austrian, has had VIE on track to be the fourth largest hub after Frankfurt, Munich, Duesseldorf or Berlin. Air Berlin’s demise makes this even more possible now.