SeanM1997 wrote:

Blerg wrote:

Will Wizz Air keep on flying to those destinations from Dubai as well or will they just shift to Abu Dhabi?

Shift over - flights showing as "Sold Out" on Wizz Air's website

I see, so basically so far we don't have any real growth, just shifting of capacity. Will these be operated by an AUH based aircraft?

Blerg wrote:

SeanM1997 wrote:

Blerg wrote:

Will Wizz Air keep on flying to those destinations from Dubai as well or will they just shift to Abu Dhabi?

Shift over - flights showing as "Sold Out" on Wizz Air's website

I see, so basically so far we don't have any real growth, just shifting of capacity. Will these be operated by an AUH based aircraft?

All European based aircraft but Wizz Air Abu Dhabi should be announcing their network in the next few weeks

xwb777 wrote:

Wizz Air Abu Dhabi new routes launch dates:

AUH to OTP: 03-06-2020
AUH to BUD: 03-06-2020
AUH to SOF: 15-09-2020
AUH to KTW: 15-09-2020
AUH to CLJ: 16-09-2020

Oneway fare starting from 60Euros.

https://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/tr ... -1.1014221

a little too ambitious to start so soon (June), when people are still in quarantine and once all measures are lifted and shops,stores,businesses start running again, AUH is not the first place someone would jump to fly to..Not to mention the financial ramifications of this whole situation on household budgets..What kind of LF are they hoping for by moving their launch dates so early?

Beginning of June 2020 is MUCH too ambitious to be selling Wizz flights to Abu Dhabi. Late October 2020 is the earliest I could possibly contemplate. However, let us pretend that the citizens of Poland/Hungary/Romania/Bulgaria are not worried at all about Covid-19...

I'm still trying to understand who is expected to be on these flights, and how Wizz will make a profit out of this. Budapest-Abu Dhabi is about 5h30 flying time - so even with fuel being cheap, Wizz will need to fill the plane at non-trivial fares. I know these questions are hard but if you ask hard questions at the start you often establish if something has a real chance of working, or if somebody has been smoking something ! Can anyone help explain in more detail ?

Are Wizz trying to sell flights to people in Eastern Europe who want a week on the beach in the shape and are going to Abu Dhabi for it ? If so, why would people go to Abu Dhabi (instead of Dubai) when Turkey and Greece (once they re-open) are much nearer and most likely have cheaper flights+hotels+food ? I think UAE will much too hot for a week on the beach in during the period June-September - maybe better for October and during the winter..
Or is it to allow people to self-connect into Etihad's network ? If so, why are Wizz and Etihad not announcing a formal co-operation ?
Or is there a surprisingly large number of people in the UAE who have a deep desire to visit Cluj ? Maybe there are enough people in/near the UAE who want to visit Budapest, but I imagine Cluj and/or Katowice will be a hard sell.
Or are there lots of people from places like Romania who have found work in the UAE instead of the UK/Spain/Italy ? I thought that the UAE imported cheap labour mainly from countries like India/Pakistan/Bangladesh who they can pay really really low wages instead
Or is Wizz hoping that people will fly to Abu Dhabi and then catch the bus to Dubai ?
Or is there some other demographic that I've missed ?

I wish Wizz well on their new adventure, but I'm struggling to see how they will sell enough tickets to fill the plane and make money..... unless Abu Dhabi despite having seen the over-expansion and contraction of Etihad and huge commercial losses still has a desire to massively subsidise Wizz and burn money all over again

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Beginning of June 2020 is MUCH too ambitious to be selling Wizz flights to Abu Dhabi. Late October 2020 is the earliest I could possibly contemplate. However, let us pretend that the citizens of Poland/Hungary/Romania/Bulgaria are not worried at all about Covid-19...

I'm still trying to understand who is expected to be on these flights, and how Wizz will make a profit out of this. Budapest-Abu Dhabi is about 5h30 flying time - so even with fuel being cheap, Wizz will need to fill the plane at non-trivial fares. I know these questions are hard but if you ask hard questions at the start you often establish if something has a real chance of working, or if somebody has been smoking something ! Can anyone help explain in more detail ?

Are Wizz trying to sell flights to people in Eastern Europe who want a week on the beach in the shape and are going to Abu Dhabi for it ? If so, why would people go to Abu Dhabi (instead of Dubai) when Turkey and Greece (once they re-open) are much nearer and most likely have cheaper flights+hotels+food ? I think UAE will much too hot for a week on the beach in during the period June-September - maybe better for October and during the winter..
Or is it to allow people to self-connect into Etihad's network ? If so, why are Wizz and Etihad not announcing a formal co-operation ?
Or is there a surprisingly large number of people in the UAE who have a deep desire to visit Cluj ? Maybe there are enough people in/near the UAE who want to visit Budapest, but I imagine Cluj and/or Katowice will be a hard sell.
Or are there lots of people from places like Romania who have found work in the UAE instead of the UK/Spain/Italy ? I thought that the UAE imported cheap labour mainly from countries like India/Pakistan/Bangladesh who they can pay really really low wages instead
Or is Wizz hoping that people will fly to Abu Dhabi and then catch the bus to Dubai ?
Or is there some other demographic that I've missed ?

I wish Wizz well on their new adventure, but I'm struggling to see how they will sell enough tickets to fill the plane and make money..... unless Abu Dhabi despite having seen the over-expansion and contraction of Etihad and huge commercial losses still has a desire to massively subsidise Wizz and burn money all over again

Dubai is an extremely popular destination in eastern Europe, especially in the Balkans. On top of that there is a growing expat community down there meaning there is a growing number of O&D passengers. With Etihad shrinking and its future uncertain, I wouldn't be too surprised if AUH actually gave Wizz Air a deal they couldn't say no to. Abu Dhabi can be a cheaper alternative to reaching Dubai. After all, Emirates is many things but they are not cheap for local passengers. That's where Qatar came in handy with their much lower fees.

As for June, maybe they are hoping thousands of stranded Hungarians, Romanians, Poles... around Asia will self-connect in AUH in order to reach their homes.

For many in the southern part of Dubai near the marina and expo site, it is a clear run at 140kmh limit to AUH in under an hour. It may take the same if not longer to get to DXB.

(This was the genius plan in opening DWC which is only 15mins away, however that plan seems to have fallen aside ...)

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Beginning of June 2020 is MUCH too ambitious to be selling Wizz flights to Abu Dhabi. Late October 2020 is the earliest I could possibly contemplate. However, let us pretend that the citizens of Poland/Hungary/Romania/Bulgaria are not worried at all about Covid-19...

I'm still trying to understand who is expected to be on these flights, and how Wizz will make a profit out of this. Budapest-Abu Dhabi is about 5h30 flying time - so even with fuel being cheap, Wizz will need to fill the plane at non-trivial fares. I know these questions are hard but if you ask hard questions at the start you often establish if something has a real chance of working, or if somebody has been smoking something ! Can anyone help explain in more detail ?

Are Wizz trying to sell flights to people in Eastern Europe who want a week on the beach in the shape and are going to Abu Dhabi for it ? If so, why would people go to Abu Dhabi (instead of Dubai) when Turkey and Greece (once they re-open) are much nearer and most likely have cheaper flights+hotels+food ? I think UAE will much too hot for a week on the beach in during the period June-September - maybe better for October and during the winter..
Or is it to allow people to self-connect into Etihad's network ? If so, why are Wizz and Etihad not announcing a formal co-operation ?
Or is there a surprisingly large number of people in the UAE who have a deep desire to visit Cluj ? Maybe there are enough people in/near the UAE who want to visit Budapest, but I imagine Cluj and/or Katowice will be a hard sell.
Or are there lots of people from places like Romania who have found work in the UAE instead of the UK/Spain/Italy ? I thought that the UAE imported cheap labour mainly from countries like India/Pakistan/Bangladesh who they can pay really really low wages instead
Or is Wizz hoping that people will fly to Abu Dhabi and then catch the bus to Dubai ?
Or is there some other demographic that I've missed ?

I wish Wizz well on their new adventure, but I'm struggling to see how they will sell enough tickets to fill the plane and make money..... unless Abu Dhabi despite having seen the over-expansion and contraction of Etihad and huge commercial losses still has a desire to massively subsidise Wizz and burn money all over again

Seriously ... the European expats in UAE will love this low cost option , they flights may not be full everyday but there are key choke points where there is an exodus from the gulf and airfares go through the roof ,i expect these flights to be a fantastic success

I already know lots of UK teachers from Manchester / Edinburgh/Newcastle who self connect via Romania, Bulgaria etc - saves them 4/500 $ at certain times of the year

These flights will be competing with Pegasus/TK via istanbul or SU via Moscow - they will not be competing with leagcy airlines

Wizz Air new routes announced today:

London Luton (LTN) - 6 routes:
Corfu (CFU) - 2x weekly - begins 3 July 2020
Faro (FAO) - 4x weekly - begins 2 July 2020
Heraklion (HER) - 3x weekly - begins 2 July 2020
Marrakech (RAK) - 4x weekly - begins 25 October 2020
Rhodes (RHO) - 2x weekly - begins 4 July 2020
Zakynthos (ZTH) - 2x weekly - begins 5 July 2020

Vienna (VIE) - 8 routes:
Brussels Charleroi (CRL) - 5x weekly - begins 1 July 2020
Burges (BOJ) - 2x weekly - begins 3 July 2020
Constanta (CND) - 2x weekly - begins 3 July 2020
Heraklion (HER) - 2x weekly - begins 2 July 2020
Marrakech (RAK) - 2x weekly - begins 27 October 2020
Rhodes (RHO) - 2x weekly - begins 2 July 2020
Tallinn (TLL) - 3x weekly - begins 2 July 2020
Zakynthos (ZTH) - 2x weekly - begins 4 July 2020

Wizz Air was trying to get any slots they could in LGW. Will they now try to move LTN routes to LGW? LGW should have a lot of slots available if Virgin Atlantic, British Airways and, most likely, Norwegian will leave Gatwick.

Kind of surprised they didn't announce Abu Dhabi - Vienna. Of course Etihad announced this route to be started in the fall, but I'm sure Wizzair can undercut them.

Or maybe that was part of the deal. Wizzair was allowed to base in Abu Dhabi, but not to compete head to head with Etihad. All of their other destinations announced so far are all unserved by Etihad. I guess they're suffering enough already from Air Arabia on the Sharjah - Vienna route.

PatrickZ80 wrote:

Kind of surprised they didn't announce Abu Dhabi - Vienna. Of course Etihad announced this route to be started in the fall, but I'm sure Wizzair can undercut them.

Or maybe that was part of the deal. Wizzair was allowed to base in Abu Dhabi, but not to compete head to head with Etihad. All of their other destinations announced so far are all unserved by Etihad. I guess they're suffering enough already from Air Arabia on the Sharjah - Vienna route.

Actually all of the destinations announced so far are those that were served from DWC. They merely shifted them to AUH. We still don't know what destinations Wizz Air AUH will fly to. These will be operated by European based aircraft and crew... at least for the time being.

Wizz Air 35 new routes and 2 new bases announced today:

Larnaca (LCA) - (11 routes and 2 aircraft base):
Athens (ATH) - Daily - begins 1 July 2020
Billund (BLL) - 2x weekly - begins 2 July 2020
Copenhagen (CPH) - 3x weekly - begins 1 July 2020
Dortmund (DTM) - 3x weekly - begins 11 July 2020
Karlsruhe / Baden-Baden (FKB) - 2x weekly - begins 4 July 2020
Memmingen (FMM) - 3x weekly - begins 11 July 2020
Salzburg (SZG) - 2x weekly - begins 12 July 2020
Suceava (SVC) - 2x weekly - begins 13 July 2020
Thessaloniki (SKG) - Daily - begins 1 July 2020
Turku (TKU) - 2x weekly - begins 12 July 2020
Wroclaw (WRO) - 2x weekly - begins 13 July 2020

London Luton (LTN) - (4 routes):
Fuerteventura (FUE) - 2x weekly - begins 3 July 2020
Lanzarote (ACE) - 2x weekly - begins 27 October 2020
Malaga (AGP) - Daily - begins 1 July 2020
Palma (PMI) - 5x weekly - begins 1 July 2020

Milan Malpensa (MXP) - (20 routes and 5 aircraft base):
Athens (ATH) - Daily - begins 31 July 2020
Corfu (CFU) - 4x weekly - begins 31 July 2020
Eindhoven (EIN) - Daily - begins 3 July 2020
Fuerteventura (FUE) - 2x weekly - begins 31 July 2020
Gran Canaria (LPA) - 2x weekly - begins 5 July 2020
Lisbon (LIS) - Daily - begins 3 July 2020
London Luton (LTN) - Daily - begins 3 July 2020
Marrakesh (RAK) - 4x weekly - begins 1 August 2020
Menorca (MAH) - Daily - begins 3 July 2020
Porto (OPO) - 5x weekly - begins 17 July 2020
Pristina (PRN) - 3x weekly - begins 18 July 2020
Reykjavik (KEF) - 3x weekly - begins 3 July 2020
Rhodes (RHO) - 3x weekly - begins 1 August 2020
Santorini (JTR) - 5x weekly - begins 31 July 2020
Tallinn (TLL) - 2x weekly - begins 18 July 2020
Tel Aviv (TLV) - Daily - begins 17 July 2020
Thessaloniki (SKG) - 4x weekly - begins 31 July 2020
Tenerife (TFS) - 3x weekly - begins 4 July 2020
Valencia (VLC) - Daily - begins 17 July 2020
Zakynthos (ZTH) - 3x weekly - begins 1 August 2020

Let's see what happens with MXP-ATH, market seems to be huge with Aegean operating up to 19 weekly flights in peak summer months. Seems like Aegean will have their hands full with Wizz Air which will also challenge them on LCA-ATH/SKG.

Larnaca - Tel Aviv gets service from 6 scheduled airlines and 1 charter airline. A pretty crowded market to enter...

Blerg wrote:

Let's see what happens with MXP-ATH, market seems to be huge with Aegean operating up to 19 weekly flights in peak summer months. Seems like Aegean will have their hands full with Wizz Air which will also challenge them on LCA-ATH/SKG.

On the LCA-ATH/SKG there is also competition from Blue Air and Cyprus..On the MXP routes their main competitor is Easyjet and the legacies, and less so Ryanair,although they compete with them at both MXP and BGY

Still no official press release or similar regarding their new bases?

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Larnaca - Tel Aviv gets service from 6 scheduled airlines and 1 charter airline. A pretty crowded market to enter...

I think from all those Wizz Air has the lowest costs so they could compete. Also one of those six is TUS whose future is still uncertain. I think ATH is much worse as it's a longer flight and there is Aegean with its God knows how many daily flights plus transfers in Athens.

Someone83 wrote:

Still no official press release or similar regarding their new bases?

MXP has been announced on their twitter page

There must be quite a few routes that will not be resuming after C19 to allow for seven aircraft at relative short notice.

EIBPI wrote:

There must be quite a few routes that will not be resuming after C19 to allow for seven aircraft at relative short notice.

Maybe they received new planes? They did get a bunch of new A321neo this year plus there's a lot more that still have to come.

EIBPI wrote:

There must be quite a few routes that will not be resuming after C19 to allow for seven aircraft at relative short notice.

That or a reduction of frequencies across the network, or a combination of both.

BrianDromey wrote:

EIBPI wrote:

There must be quite a few routes that will not be resuming after C19 to allow for seven aircraft at relative short notice.

That or a reduction of frequencies across the network, or a combination of both.

According to Wikipedia, in the next 5.5 years Wizz Air will be receiving 178 A321neo and 20 A321XLR, that's 198 planes or 36 planes per year. Expect a lot of expansion from now on, they have no other choice really.

They have the clear choice of postponing some of these deliveries until the market recovers.

Wizz can ask Airbus to postpone - but if they want to defer payment for the aircraft, then Airbus will want something in return. That "something in return" may be more than Wizz want to pay

Plus we are not talking about a few planes here, these are serious numbers and I am sure Airbus wouldn't want to set any precedent here. Anyway, given the way Wizz Air behaved in recent weeks, I highly doubt they are looking to defer deliveries. The other day thei CEO said that he doesn't expect 30% of airlines in Europe to survive corona.

P1aneMad wrote:

They have the clear choice of postponing some of these deliveries until the market recovers.

It is their once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to gain market share.

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Wizz can ask Airbus to postpone - but if they want to defer payment for the aircraft, then Airbus will want something in return. That "something in return" may be more than Wizz want to pay

Postpone? They are struggling even to get the scheduled orders produced/financed.

Blerg wrote:

BrianDromey wrote:

EIBPI wrote:

There must be quite a few routes that will not be resuming after C19 to allow for seven aircraft at relative short notice.

That or a reduction of frequencies across the network, or a combination of both.

According to Wikipedia, in the next 5.5 years Wizz Air will be receiving 178 A321neo and 20 A321XLR, that's 198 planes or 36 planes per year. Expect a lot of expansion from now on, they have no other choice really.

A lot of those will be replacement of existing frames. 30-40 A-320s will be released in the next years (8 in the next 12 months)

Further base announcements will follow in the next days. Basically aircraft will be re-positioned from existing bases to airports willing to pay the most subsidy or cut the most fees. Most probably MXP and LCA were already chosen based on this criteria. Plus they must be desperate the get the 80-90 aircraft parked since March off the ground. Normally new bases and flights are not announced with 4 weeks lead time. Obviously there won't be victorious press releases about the route and frequency cuts at the existing bases.

holczakker wrote:

Further base announcements will follow in the next days. Basically aircraft will be re-positioned from existing bases to airports willing to pay the most subsidy or cut the most fees. Most probably MXP and LCA were already chosen based on this criteria. Plus they must be desperate the get the 80-90 aircraft parked since March off the ground. Normally new bases and flights are not announced with 4 weeks lead time. Obviously there won't be victorious press releases about the route and frequency cuts at the existing bases

Any idea about new bases? The current situation is so unexpected that any airport could be potentially interested to have a W6 base.

I have found that (daily!) Malpensa-Menorca flight very suspicious. Considering Volotea is also being paid by the Balearic government to fly domestic routes in Spain, I wonder if a seasonal PMI base would make sense.

Also BCN would be a logical candidate. Norwegian has left the airport and I wouldn't be surprised easyJet also close their base there (since they are cutting like 30% of their workforce). That is also a big gap to fill.

Tirana is long overdue. TLV, LED, OSL maybe?

I could see Tirana-Oslo working but I'm not sure how much demand there would be for Tirana-Tel Aviv or Tirana-St Petersburg

I meant potential bases at all those places. Altough on second thought LED would hardly be approved by the empire to favor their own operators.

xwb777 wrote:

Although not a very reliable source, Wizz Air will not be a feeder for Etihad.
https://simpleflying.com/wizz-air-abu-dhabi-etihad/

That was expected, if I remember well that role is meant for Air Arabia.

From what I read online, corona has badly hit German airports. I wonder if we might see them launch a German base at some point. They are quite big in Dortmund, Baden Baden, Memmingen and Hanover.

That said, the only thing that interests me more is how will their competition respond, especially Ryanair. Wizz Air is moving more and more outside their traditional playground in eastern Europe. Now they have four bases outside their 'comfort' zone: LCA, VIE, MXP and LTN.

According to rumors, Joszef Varadi will travel to Salzburg & Tirana today... likely two new bases will be announced.

SMKCosmopolitan wrote:

According to rumors, Joszef Varadi will travel to Salzburg & Tirana today... likely two new bases will be announced.

I was surprised to see that so far Salzburg didn't have a Wizz Air service until LCA's announcement yesterday.

VCy wrote:

SMKCosmopolitan wrote:

According to rumors, Joszef Varadi will travel to Salzburg & Tirana today... likely two new bases will be announced.

I was surprised to see that so far Salzburg didn't have a Wizz Air service until LCA's announcement yesterday.

The following routes will be opened from Salzburg: Tuzla, Belgrade, Skopje, Bucharest, Kyiv, Larnaca - seems to me that they will rather be served by incoming aircraft.
Source: Wizz Air website (route map to be precise)

SMKCosmopolitan wrote:

VCy wrote:

SMKCosmopolitan wrote:

According to rumors, Joszef Varadi will travel to Salzburg & Tirana today... likely two new bases will be announced.

I was surprised to see that so far Salzburg didn't have a Wizz Air service until LCA's announcement yesterday.

The following routes will be opened from Salzburg: Tuzla, Belgrade, Skopje, Bucharest, Kyiv, Larnaca - seems to me that they will rather be served by incoming aircraft.
Source: Wizz Air website (route map to be precise)

Salzburg's 5 new routes announced today. All 2x weekly flights on away based aircraft:
- Kyiv Zhulyany - begins 1 July
- Belgrade, Bucharest & Tuzla - begins 2 July
- Skopje - begins 3 July

See? Another batch of flights announced in a hurry to an airport willing to slash fees.

SMKCosmopolitan wrote:

VCy wrote:

SMKCosmopolitan wrote:

According to rumors, Joszef Varadi will travel to Salzburg & Tirana today... likely two new bases will be announced.

I was surprised to see that so far Salzburg didn't have a Wizz Air service until LCA's announcement yesterday.

The following routes will be opened from Salzburg: Tuzla, Belgrade, Skopje, Bucharest, Kyiv, Larnaca - seems to me that they will rather be served by incoming aircraft.
Source: Wizz Air website (route map to be precise)

BEG-SZG will be operated by an A320 based in Belgrade, hopefully they have more success here than they did on BEG-LYS which lasted only one season. I think they need to be careful with Salzburg because of their Memmingen operations.

new base in MXP: https://www.fly4free.com/flight-deals/e ... larnaca-2/

Wizz New Routes announced from Tirana (TIA):
Bari (BRI) - 4x weekly - begins 15 July 2020
Basel (BSL) - 2x weekly - begins 18 July 2020
Beauvais (BVA) - 3x weekly - begins 15 July 2020
Berlin Schoenefeld (SXF) - 3x weekly - begins 15 July 2020
Brussels Charleroi (CRL) - 2x weekly (increasing to 4x weekly) - begins 1 July 2020
Catania (CTA) - 3x weekly - begins 23 July 2020
Eindhoven (EIN) - 3x weekly - begins 2 July 2020
Hahn (HHN) - 3x weekly - begins 16 July 2020
Hamburg (HAM) - 2x weekly - begins 24 July 2020
Heraklion (HER) - 2x weekly - begins 17 July 2020
Karlsruhe (FKB) - 2x weekly - begins 15 July 2020
Milan Malpensa (MXP) - Daily - begins 16 July 2020
Prague (PRG) - 2x weekly - begins 3 July 2020
Rhodes (RHO) - 2x weekly - begins 16 July 2020
Turin (TRN) - 4x weekly - begins 16 July 2020

SeanM1997 wrote:

SMKCosmopolitan wrote:

VCy wrote:

I was surprised to see that so far Salzburg didn't have a Wizz Air service until LCA's announcement yesterday.

The following routes will be opened from Salzburg: Tuzla, Belgrade, Skopje, Bucharest, Kyiv, Larnaca - seems to me that they will rather be served by incoming aircraft.
Source: Wizz Air website (route map to be precise)

Salzburg's 5 new routes announced today. All 2x weekly flights on away based aircraft:
- Kyiv Zhulyany - begins 1 July
- Belgrade, Bucharest & Tuzla - begins 2 July
- Skopje - begins 3 July

Salzburg is very interesting because in winter it also doubles as a tourism (ski) destination. So SZG to UK, Netherlands will work. And being a wealthy area, in S21 one could expect the likes of PMI or HER. A very interesting mix between inbound tourism, outbound tourism and VFR.

Salzburg in winter on Saturdays (ie change over day for everyone on a 1 week ski holiday) is hopelessly overcrowded. The terminal cannot possibly handle any more pax on winter Saturdays - it runs far over design capacity. Until the terminal revamp is completed, winter ski is not going to be a growth area at Salzburg

SeanM1997 wrote:

Wizz New Routes announced from Tirana (TIA):
Bari (BRI) - 4x weekly - begins 15 July 2020
Basel (BSL) - 2x weekly - begins 18 July 2020
Beauvais (BVA) - 3x weekly - begins 15 July 2020
Berlin Schoenefeld (SXF) - 3x weekly - begins 15 July 2020
Brussels Charleroi (CRL) - 2x weekly (increasing to 4x weekly) - begins 1 July 2020
Catania (CTA) - 3x weekly - begins 23 July 2020
Eindhoven (EIN) - 3x weekly - begins 2 July 2020
Hahn (HHN) - 3x weekly - begins 16 July 2020
Hamburg (HAM) - 2x weekly - begins 24 July 2020
Heraklion (HER) - 2x weekly - begins 17 July 2020
Karlsruhe (FKB) - 2x weekly - begins 15 July 2020
Milan Malpensa (MXP) - Daily - begins 16 July 2020
Prague (PRG) - 2x weekly - begins 3 July 2020
Rhodes (RHO) - 2x weekly - begins 16 July 2020
Turin (TRN) - 4x weekly - begins 16 July 2020

Opening a base in TIA was expected. The scale of the base on the other hand was a very pleasant surprise. 3 aircrafts right off the bat. Some of these routes seem like no brainers, in particular those to Italy (continuing their earlier announced routes) and those to HER and RHO. EIN also makes perfect sense after the cancellation of TIA-AMS by Transavia.

Really interested to see how CTA does. The first Sicily route ever from Albania.

What an amazing development for TIA. Excited to see how all the new routes do and hoping for more expansion in the upcoming years

I wonder whether these new announcements are staffed via current crews and relocations of if they actually need to hire for the new bases.

In both cases, I wonder how "easy" is for Wizz to undertake all these movements in current pandemic times and with lots of restrictions for people to move around Europe. Hope it's all voluntary and crews get indeed reasonable conditions applying/moving to these new places.