Wizz Air have had overnighting aircraft at Luton for a few years already. Now they have officially announced it as a base.

LTN-TLV will also be added.

https://book.wizzair.com/en-GB/about_us/news/wizzen537

I'm shocked it wasn't already. Isn't LTN their largest airport?

I guess falling GBP has finally made the costs low enough to fully justify it.

intetesting some trimming of other Wizz UK capacity however...

Given the massive Wizz presence in LTN, I guess this is really just calling a spade a spade - even if it wasn't a "hub", it was probably busier and more important than some of their actual hubs. I guess they will now have a crew base in LTN? I don't know the figures, but they seem to be nearly as big as U2 in LTN, certainly during their 8am bank of departures. Nice to see a new route to Georgia.

by738 wrote:

intetesting some trimming of other Wizz UK capacity however...

Where?

LTN has been W6's most-served airport for a long time. With these 3 new routes W6 will have 42 routes from LTN. Excitingly, Georgia will be available from £34.99 one-way.

Although I guess that it is very difficult to actually base aircraft there - the airport must already be quite saturated when it comes to stands for overnighting aircraft

Wow. So following Brexit the UK becomes a savagely racist place for Eastern Europeans yet an Eastern European airline sets up shop in addition to another Eastern European airline setting up a new base in Liverpool. Funny that isn't it? I wonder who is going to fly on them?

GLA has seem at least two route reductions

sevenair wrote:

Wow. So following Brexit the UK becomes a savagely racist place for Eastern Europeans yet an Eastern European airline sets up shop in addition to another Eastern European airline setting up a new base in Liverpool. Funny that isn't it? I wonder who is going to fly on them?

The thing here is that Wizz is an Eastern European airline that only flies to Eastern Europe. In contrast, Blue Air will fly from Liverpool to a mixture of Eastern and Western destinations. Anyways, we still need time to see how Brexit will affect them.

Don't know how long this base will be open due to brexit

WIZZ must not be aware of Brexit. Perhaps someone should tell them.

Do they presently have crews from Eastern European bases that overnight in Luton and fly out the next day or do they already have crews that live in the Luton vicinity?

sevenair wrote:

WIZZ must not be aware of Brexit. Perhaps someone should tell them.

Brexit or no Brexit there will still be good demand for flights to Eastern Europe from the UK and with a base if that demand lessens then they can then put the aircraft onto the sun routes.

CRJ900 wrote:

Do they presently have crews from Eastern European bases that overnight in Luton and fly out the next day or do they already have crews that live in the Luton vicinity?

Wizz don't currently have any crew permanently based out of Luton. In past Summer seasons, an A320 with crew from different bases has overnighted at LTN to operate flights from LTN to non-bases. They had an early wave at around 05:00 to Bourgas and Varna last year.

I suspect Wizz have been watching the success of Blue Air in Western European markets closely and feel they are in a position to deliver similar results.

sevenair wrote:

WIZZ must not be aware of Brexit. Perhaps someone should tell them.

Brexit hasn't started yet let alone be finished.

[email protected] wrote:

sevenair wrote:

WIZZ must not be aware of Brexit. Perhaps someone should tell them.

Brexit hasn't started yet let alone be finished.

Oh I see. So it's just a temporary base which will close upon the UK leaving the EU? It makes you wonder why they're bothering setting up a new base for just a couple of years. An expensive undertaking for a temporary "while the UK is still in the EU" base.

How will the brexit affect them. I assume they will need a uk aoc ? Are we going to see g reg a/c ?

Ps the ltn tlv route is going to hurt u2 and mon it is one of the most profitable routes

f4f3a wrote:

How will the brexit affect them. I assume they will need a uk aoc ? Are we going to see g reg a/c ?

I mean, it will depend on the result of the negotiation. If UK remains in ECAA, and you don't need to be an EU member to be part of it, then there will be no real difference. Personally I consider this the most likely.

If it's a full open skies agreement with the EU for unlimited rights, then they would need a UK AOC only if they want to keep serving non-ECAA destinations from the UK. Note that places like Macedonia are ECAA members but not EU, so don't confuse EU there.

If no full open skies...well then things have gone terrible and who knows what will happen.

sevenair wrote:

Oh I see. So it's just a temporary base which will close upon the UK leaving the EU? It makes you wonder why they're bothering setting up a new base for just a couple of years. An expensive undertaking for a temporary "while the UK is still in the EU" base.

It's pretty naïve to suggest that every foreign airline will pull their UK bases the moment Brexit is finalised. By the same token, will FR be closing all of their UK bases?

Eurohub wrote:

sevenair wrote:

Oh I see. So it's just a temporary base which will close upon the UK leaving the EU? It makes you wonder why they're bothering setting up a new base for just a couple of years. An expensive undertaking for a temporary "while the UK is still in the EU" base.

It's pretty naïve to suggest that every foreign airline will pull their UK bases the moment Brexit is finalised. By the same token, will FR be closing all of their UK bases?

Err, well this is what MOL said.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/brexit-could-ground-uk-flights-9836273

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary yesterday claimed all flights between the UK and Europe could be suspended in March 2019

So what's going to happen with FR's megabase in STN? If all flights between the EU and UK could end (despite him announcing 20+ UK-EU routes this week alone) is he just going to fly 20 rotations a day to UK destinations? Is it naïve for MOL to say this or is it just brexiters who are naïve.

f4f3a wrote:

Ps the ltn tlv route is going to hurt u2 and mon it is one of the most profitable routes

Who says it's one of the most profitable routes? I'd say 2 hour beach flights earn a lot more money than TLV which is a very price sensitive route.

I think the UK will remain in the ECAA, so nothing will change. Otherwise they can always pull back to the current situation with Luton be a focus destination but not a base.

I'm curious if they'll open up other bases in western Europe in the future. They got quite a number of focus cities which are not yet bases but do have a large Wizzair presence. And if they got bases in western Europe, will they start flying within western Europe too? So far all flights are to/from eastern Europe, even the announced destinations from Luton are in eastern Europe. But can we see Wizzair for example start Luton - Eindhoven? Eindhoven is already a focus destination for them and it's only a short hop from Luton. Of course it would mean heavy competition with Ryanair on the Stansted - Eindhoven route and also somewhat on the Luton - Weeze route.

This is brilliant news for Luton and Wizzair, and some very long awaited news...

While there hasn't been that much in the way of large expansion in recent years at Luton with Wizzair, there has been additional frequencies added to existing routes and now the airline is getting more and more A321, they are upgrading numerous routes from the 180 seater A320 to the 230 seater A321!

Just looked at the arrivals board for LTN today and their was 41 Wizzair flights for today (Fri 17/2), and would also mean there are 41 departing flights too!

One of the big shockers was Wizzair starting LTN-TLV, this will make them the fourth carrier on the route, meaning around 30(ish) flights a week in each direction!
easyJet - 12 weekly flights.
EL-AL - 7-12 weekly flights (depending on time of year and religious holidays using 737, 757, 767 and 777)
Monarch - 4 weekly flights
Wizzair - 4 weekly flights

With Ryanair growing an ever larger presence at Tel Aviv, it would be interesting to see if they are keen to join the party and put a few peoples noses out of joint!

This is what has happened at Luton with the route to Copenhagen... easyJet decided to start operating the route about 18 months ago, with three flights a day. Ryanair then came along and matched them with three flights a day, then easyJet reacted by adding a fourth daily flight and Ryanair followed suit. This pushed lead-in prices on the route down to less than £10 each way, with both airlines and this sort of price with easyJet is usually unheard of. Now easyJet have decided to pull out of the route, for obvious reasons, come the end of March and this followed with Ryanair moving three of their four daily flights from Luton to Stansted on the Copenhagen route.

Fingers crossed nothing similar happens with TLV!

sevenair wrote:

Eurohub wrote:

sevenair wrote:

Oh I see. So it's just a temporary base which will close upon the UK leaving the EU? It makes you wonder why they're bothering setting up a new base for just a couple of years. An expensive undertaking for a temporary "while the UK is still in the EU" base.

It's pretty naïve to suggest that every foreign airline will pull their UK bases the moment Brexit is finalised. By the same token, will FR be closing all of their UK bases?

Err, well this is what MOL said.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/brexit-could-ground-uk-flights-9836273

Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary yesterday claimed all flights between the UK and Europe could be suspended in March 2019

So what's going to happen with FR's megabase in STN? If all flights between the EU and UK could end (despite him announcing 20+ UK-EU routes this week alone) is he just going to fly 20 rotations a day to UK destinations? Is it naïve for MOL to say this or is it just brexiters who are naïve.

Ryanair is not going to relocate 20% of it's fleet and scrap flying between the UK and Ireland and Europe. It would give up a massive share of one of the biggest aviation markets in the world to its competitors like Wizz Easyjet Jet2.com Monarch and Vueling and Norwegian . It would be business stupidity and MOL isn't stupid.

This topic is about Wizz Air announcing LTN. Please stay on topic.

✈️ atcsundevil