Delta777jet From Germany, joined Jun 2000, 779 posts, RR: 1 Posted (5 months 1 week 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 6658 times:
Apparently Centralwings, low-cost subsidiary of LOT Polish Airlines stopped operations leaving some passengers stranded without any connections. Is that the polish way to give crews some free time to celebrate Easter or what is going on there ? On their website they now writting, that they are adapting their timetable to the market reality, whatever that means ?!? I searched some Polish airport websites and no single flight of Centralwings listed anymore........
Delta777Jet From Germany, joined Jun 2000, 779 posts, RR: 1 Reply 2, posted (5 months 1 week 1 day 19 hours ago) and read 6576 times:
It seems that they completely stopped as of today or yesterday, I can't find any departures anymore and with a fleet of 9 aircrafts there must be some.
Centralwings Management sincerely apologizes for the difficulties in connecting to our Customer Service Centre and for the long waiting period for a consultant. The problems result from the considerable overload of the telephone lines at our disposal.
Consultants in our call centre are contacting passengers about the modified flights on an ongoing basis and informing them of the modifications. We are contacting those passengers with the earliest flights in the first place.
We apologize and ask for your patience.
We want to serve all passengers with the utmost care and fulfil our commitments. We suggest that passengers on cancelled or changed flights use other Centralwings flights on similar routes or on different dates. Obviously, we will refund the cost of purchasing tickets to those passengers to whom we are unable to offer flights that meet their expectations.
We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused.
Centralwings planes still fly and will be flying. The company offers and will continue to offer cheap air transport.
The situation in the market of low-cost carriers in Poland forced Centralwings to adapt the timetable to the market reality and requirements. The Company decided to concentrate on the most profitable connections in the summer season.
FCAFLYBOY From United Kingdom, joined Nov 2006, 208 posts, RR: 0 Reply 7, posted (5 months 1 week 1 day 18 hours ago) and read 6462 times:
Quoting BestWestern (Reply 6): but have not shut down, but that obviously is the next step.
Why??
It sounds like good practice to me, OK, not great customer service as it's at the last minute, but one way they can offset going under is surely to bin flights with a 30-40% load factor, common sense I'd call it!
BestWestern From Ireland, joined Sep 2000, 4413 posts, RR: 52 Reply 8, posted (5 months 1 week 1 day 18 hours ago) and read 6411 times:
It is common sense, but what will happen is that passengers will desert them in droves. If you were a polish plumber would you book Centralwings or Ryanair?
Delta777Jet From Germany, joined Jun 2000, 779 posts, RR: 1 Reply 9, posted (5 months 1 week 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 6361 times:
There were some speculation about this happening weeks before, but no concrete plans were reveiled to the public. To cancel flights on such short notice is not a nice gesture to passengers. Not even an offer from LOT as a parent company to transport affected passengers. The only one who make such an offer is Wizz and pax need to purchase a new ticket. What I can see from the new route network is, that they continue to operate with two or three planes instead of two and the other will most likely sit on the ground for some time. What LOT wants with 7 additional 737's ? If I remember correctly they ordered just a few more E-Jet's to come ?
OA260 From Ireland, joined Nov 2006, 9778 posts, RR: 20 Reply 10, posted (5 months 1 week 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 6279 times:
Quoting BestWestern (Reply 8): If you were a polish plumber would you book Centralwings or Ryanair?
People do trust FR whatever may be said about them. They are reliable on the whole. This will be a major blow to the confidence in C0. I know I would think twice about booking them . Polish people are not really loyal to their national carriers anyway .
Danny From Ireland, joined Apr 2002, 3116 posts, RR: 3 Reply 13, posted (5 months 1 week 1 day 17 hours ago) and read 6204 times:
I am not going to defend Centralwings as I experienced their appalling service more than enough times however the title of the thread is incorrect. They drastically cut their schedules leaving many passengers stranded but they are NOT grounded.
Gilesdavies From United Kingdom, joined Dec 2003, 1902 posts, RR: 3 Reply 15, posted (5 months 1 week 1 day 16 hours ago) and read 6123 times:
Looks like WIzz Air has finally finished them off!
They operated very old unreliable 737-400's that were notorious for going Tech, while cancellations and severe delays was the norm most days.
They were trying to operate as a LCC, while having th expensive infastructure of LOT in the background.
Their fares to Poland were nowhere near as competitive as WIzz Air, and wherever CentralWings tried to launch routes, Wizz was never far behind offering a competing service from a neighborouring airport in the UK. WIzz Air has very much followed the FR model, flying from secondary airports and operating a new modern fleet of A320's, with their cost base similar to Ryanair and beatin easyJet.
Its a simple fact the Polish LCC market to the UK, which is there "bread and butter" routes, have become saturated and there is only so much of a market. SkyEurope was a similar casualty in the Polish market, and has since pulled out and re-focused flying from hubs in Bratislava, Vienna and Prague where they have been very successful.
It will be interesting to see how BMI Baby perform on these routes, as they have become a very late entrant into this market.
Delta777Jet From Germany, joined Jun 2000, 779 posts, RR: 1 Reply 17, posted (5 months 1 week 1 day 16 hours ago) and read 6015 times:
Danny: I dont know why the title of topic is incorrect ? Almost all planes of Centralwings sitting idle on the ground. An airline which got most parts of their fleet during peak season on the ground with some funny statements on their website, I call it grounding.
The only difference to a bankruptcy grounding is the backing of LOT which is their mother company. So it's a grounding on instalments rather than a quick shot, whilst LOT is pushing in some fresh funds most likely.
I think the people visiting right now their families in Poland will be lucky to stay some additional days in Poland.
It's also a nice move to keep the labour in the country.
At least the 2 pm London flight seems to be operating.
OA260 From Ireland, joined Nov 2006, 9778 posts, RR: 20 Reply 18, posted (5 months 1 week 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 5961 times:
Whatever you call it ''temporary grounding'' ''Grounding'' I think the general consensus is that C0 are in serious trouble as suggested on other threads. Hundreds stranded and issues getting through to the call center. Operating a few routes and cancelling at least 90-95% of their flights is grounding IMHO.
BestWestern From Ireland, joined Sep 2000, 4413 posts, RR: 52 Reply 19, posted (5 months 1 week 1 day 15 hours ago) and read 5894 times:
Quoting OA260 (Reply 18): Whatever you call it ''temporary grounding'' ''Grounding'' I think the general consensus is that C0 are in serious trouble as suggested on other threads. Hundreds stranded and issues getting through to the call center. Operating a few routes and cancelling at least 90-95% of their flights is grounding IMHO.
This is not a Grounding as the airline is still operating. This is a major hacking of the schedule to stop immediate bankruptcy. Its a short stay before the airline is closed, as the airline is now sharing its fixed costs over fewer and fewer flights. Centralwings will be gone within weeks IMHO.
its easy to charge lowfares. its hard to make money from it. Oil has gone through the roof, the european economy is in depression, and high interest rates = less disposable income. This is the first of many 'low fares' airlines to go under in 2008.
RJ100 From Russia, joined Nov 2000, 3980 posts, RR: 30 Reply 21, posted (5 months 1 week 1 day 11 hours ago) and read 5556 times:
I always hoped for SkyEurope to make it but it indeed looks very bad now. They announced to drop VIE-INN, a route they just started and have increased. Such a fast turnaround in thinking in my opinion shows that there is "fire under the roof". They obviously dont have the money to finance new routes and need to drop them just after a few months. It seems they only survive by selling their aircraft.
About Centralwings I don't understand why they produce such a mess over the Easter holidays...one could think the planes are full in this period of time?
Next: Basel-Vienna-St. Petersburg-Frankfurt-Basel on OS and LH
Delta777Jet From Germany, joined Jun 2000, 779 posts, RR: 1 Reply 22, posted (5 months 1 week 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 5515 times:
Yep, the decisions of LOT are not understandable.
I heard the management board of LOT is changing very frequently (every 3 months or so), may be this have something to do with it as well ?
Regarding of SkyEurope it's very hard to understand the exact reason why they not performing well.
The financial performance isn't great, but I would have expected that the move to Vienna would help the
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