Wizz Abu Dhabi has now 4 aircraft, with one being parked in Al Ain. Currently there are only three planes in operation.

In order to fulfill their schedule, from November on Wizz Abu Dhabi needs 8 ( ! ) based planes!

The schedule on 6 November cannot be flown with less than 8 aircraft! Shown is the departure time from AUH and arrival time back in AUH:

1) 14:10 -> 18:40 | to Salalah and back
2) 8:10 -> 16:15 | to Tel Aviv and back
3) 16:15 -> 22:55 | to Baku and back
4) 8:10 -> 17:10 | to Yerevan and back
5) 16:30 -> 2:55 | to Chisinau and back
6) 12:20 -> 21:40 | to Larnaca and back
7) 14:05 -> 1:25 | to Tirana and back
8) 14:05 -> 1:25 | to Belgrade and back

The plane from Tel Aviv is back in AUH at 16:15. That's too late to make it for the flight to Chisinau at 16:30.

airlinenavigato wrote:

Wizz Abu Dhabi has now 4 aircraft, with one being parked in Al Ain. Currently there are only three planes in operation.

In order to fulfill their schedule, from November on Wizz Abu Dhabi needs 8 ( ! ) based planes!

Logic then says that not all destinations will (excuse the pun) take off ... the question remains, which of these will start in early November! I guess we wait and see.

hm why is it logic?

I see different possibilities:

a) they won't need 8 based AUH aircraft in Nov 6 in Abu because Wizz gonna put some of the eight mentioned flights into another day of the week

b) they won't need 8 based aircraft, because they postpone the start some of the 8 destinations from Nov 6 to a later date

c) they actually gonna fly with the 8 aircraft. In the winter schedule 5W is supposed to serve 21 destinations (25 - 4 Greek seasonal islands).
Let's say they gonna introduce a bunch of new routes in September and woops - 8 aircraft are actually needed

Why should Wizz have a schedule that they don't have the capacity for?

On the other weekdays they gonna need also up to 8 aircraft in order to fulfil the schedule:

Sat, 6 November: 8 based aircraft needed
Sun, 7 November: 7 based aircraft needed
Mon, 8 November: 4 based aircraft needed
Tue, 9 November: 8 based aircraft needed
Wed, 10 November: 4 based aircraft needed
Thu, 11 November: 7 based aircraft needed
Fri, 12 November: 3 based aircraft needed

Normally Fridays there is a lot of demand. 5W hasn't scheduled many flights on that weekday

For Kuwait and Saudi Arabia there is some space on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
The Managing Director says "Saudi Arabia is likely going to happen sooner or later."

"Bahrain is first of many more to come."

Great

https://www.google.com/amp/s/gulfnews.c ... 1.82250106

When travelling to Abu Dhabi within the UAE, there is no PCR or any other test needed anymore.

Could spike the flying demand for people who are in Dubai and want to fly from AUH. And for people from other countries arriving in AUH, spending some time in Dubai and departing from AUH.

KTW, CLJ, CTA, SJJ and ODS are still up for a start in the second week of October.

Bari is now bookable from the end of March 2022 on. And in the schedule is a break in summer time.

https://gulfnews.com/uae/health/uae-tra ... 1949137830

Air Arabia from Sharjah, Emirates and Etihad resumed their flights to Saudi Arabia.

Wizz may follow soon.

Air Arabia Abu Dhabi has Saudi destinations in their flight search. But it's not bookable.

https://gulfbusiness.com/uaes-air-arabi ... di-arabia/

The UAE population was just 200.000 in 1970. It was steadily growing including expats over the last decades.


pic: google

In 2013 Wizz started to fly to Dubai – from Sofia, Bucharest, Kyiv and Budapest.


pic: statista

The UAE gonna see a further growth over the next years, mostly expats who increase the demand of airlines.


pic: worldpopulationreview.com

India and the UAE want a 115 billion USD trade. If nothing else works, Wizz could fly from AUH to India with their A330F ..

https://www.statista.com/statistics/297 ... opulation/

https://worldpopulationreview.com/world ... population

https://www.google.com/search?q=uae+population

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.hindus ... 9-amp.html

Both Dubai and Abu Dhabi still require a PCR test to enter. independently whether being vaccinated or not.

Somewhere I read that a PCR test kills the flight demand. I kinda agree. It has a high price, takes effort to organize the test and to do in the right time frame. Then the result may has to be printed or uploaded to the airline website or the page of the country of entry...

airlinenavigato wrote:

Somewhere I read that a PCR test kills the flight demand.

Yep. All good and well to have €19.99 fare on ATH-AUH or BUD-DXB but it will cost easily triple that in the PCR test.

"It is working on regulatory approvals to start flights to the Indian subcontinent, creating a massive opportunity for point-to-point services in one of the world's fastest-growing aviation markets." So the question remains ... where will the fly to from AUH?

https://www.thenationalnews.com/busines ... ions-lift/

If Wizz get regulatory approval to fly AUH - India which is not constrained in any way (e.g. the approval doesn't say something like "Delhi and Mumbai are forbidden") I imagine Wizz will be looking at something like this to decide where to fly
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_t ... s_in_India

If there are no constraints, then there would be nothing stopping them sticking to their 2-or-3-a-week standard operating model and picking off the top 10 or 15 airports on this list over time.

With 5W now launching for sale AUH-HRI in Sri Lanka (plus W6 have also started KTW-AUH), any thoughts as to where the next destination to/from AUH will be?

Further down the line, I wish they would get Socotra.

myki wrote:

With 5W now launching for sale AUH-HRI in Sri Lanka (plus W6 have also started KTW-AUH), any thoughts as to where the next destination to/from AUH will be?

These are my current estimates:

--- Top 3 for the very next ---

Skopje
Jeddah / Riyadh / Medina
Turkey

--- very likely ---

Beirut
Phristina
Dhaka
Shah Bangladesh
Ankara
Antalya
Dalaman
Shymkent Kazakhstan
Iran
Karachi / Islamabad / Lahore
Aktau / Atyrau Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Uzbekistan
Hurghada / Sharm el Sheikh
Chisinau again
Mahé Seychelles
Thessaloniki again
Doha

--- likely ---

Assiut Egypt
Bodrum
Varna
other airports in Saudi Arabia
Tajikistan
Corfu
Dubrovnik
Banja Luka
Tanzania
Timisoara / Iasi
Kenya
Sudan
South Sudan
Eretria
Nigeria
Aktobe Kazakhstan
Ethiopia
INDIA
Zanzibar
Tbilisi
Aswan Egypt
Podgorica / Tivat
Split
Malta
other airports in Turkey
Eilat
Zagreb
Larnaca again
Chania again
Rhodes again
Peshawar
Multan
other airports in Pakista
Istanbul
Colombo Sri Lanka (instead of Mattala)

--- medium likely ---

Ljubljana
other airports in Egypt
Palermo
Cairo
Zadar
Mayotte
Comores
Osmani Bangladesh
Qabala Azerbaijan
other airports in Bangladesh
Chad
Somaliland
other airports in Oman
Tuzla
Kashgar China
Uganda
Iraq
Warsaw
Kos
Zakynthos
Marsa Alam
Bacau
Burgas
Heraklion (instead of Chania)
Mykonos again
Luxor again
Kazan
Yekatarienburg
Ufa Russia
Sochi
Mineralnye Vody
other airports in Russia

--- Forum's favorite ---
Ürümqi

ah another hot candidate is Bhairahawa in Nepal.
was already announced in the press, but not by 5W.
September might not be the start month, but somewhat later.
Bringing Bhairahawa into play is the reason why Kathmandu in Nepal is not on the list anymore.

https://www.aviation24.be/airlines/wizz ... september/

Interestingly Wizz Air wrote their own press statement regarding self-hubbing:

"For those yearning to discover what the [Maldives] have to offer, Wizz Air’s new route unlocks affordable travel options for those within the UAE and for self-connecting passengers travelling from Central and Eastern Europe via the Wizz Air network."

https://wizzair.com/en-gb/information-a ... e-maldives

So Wizz Air encourages people from Vienna, Budapest, Athens, Poland and Italy to fly via Abu Dhabi to the Maldives.

From Europe to the Maldives is currently possible from 150€ one-way:

https://www.kiwi.com/en/search/results/ ... rtBy=price

Wizz may connect Eindhoven with Abu Dhabi with the XLR. Or even Amsterdam, as the airport costs seem to be as low as Ryanair uses the airport.

Still Amsterdam - Dubai is already served by Transavia from 170€. So the price point is not that big to let passengers switch from Transavia to Wizz on this route.

https://www.kiwi.com/en/search/results/ ... r=0%7Etrue

Wizz expects to have the first 2 XLRs by March 2024 (end of FY24).

According to ch-aviation, Wizz hinted to use them to the Far East. Most likely from Abu Dhabi. Or from Saudi Arabia, if that's the next Wizz AOC

The Far East has many interesting travel destinations:



https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news ... on-in-2024

Regarding the range, I found an interesting article. The 4,700nm can be reached by premium airlines with fewer seats.

ULCCs will reach about 3,650nmi with the XLR. Still impressive and brings a lot of great routes.


epsilonaviation.wordpress.com

https://epsilonaviation.wordpress.com/2 ... 321xlr-do/

-----

There are going to be 8 aircraft based Abu Dhabi by the end of the year, twice as much as today.

Pakistan was hinted to be launched from Abu Dhabi. So I change my Top 3 predictions to Skopje, Riyadh/Medina/Jeddah and Pakistan

And same as in Abu Dhabi, Wizz is going to get an AOC in Saudi Arabia.

https://samchui.com/2022/09/05/wizz-air ... arabia-lcc

Have you ever imagined Wizz buying the A321LR?

According to Epsilonaviation, a Wizz A321LR has a range of 3,050nmi:



With the A321LR we'd already had flights from Abu Dhabi to:
- Thailand
- Malaysia
- Hanoi
- Central China like Chengdu
- London
- Germany
- France
- maybe Eindhoven

Now I'm mad about Wizz Air. Why didn't they buy A321LR? That model was available to order in 2015 already.

Looks like Wizz gonna bring affordable prices to a lot of countries.

I can already see London LGW being connected daily with Abu Dhabi with the XLR ^^

Do you have an idea, which destination 5W serves currently daily from AUH?

.
.
.

It's Baku! Wouldn't gave guessed that ...

---

These destinations are currently unserved by all UAE carriers:
Mongolia
Banda Aceh
Reunion
Madagascar
Comores
Mayotte
Laos
Cambodia

Maybe Wizz sees an opportunity to serve them from AUH.

Wizzair have 10 flights today departing from Abu Dhabi. Yes, 10 flights out of all their AUH routes.
While speculating about routes is fun, please remember Wizz is not a big airline at AUH, and it will take time to grow if Wizz want to be profitable.

Reunion has about 860,000 inhabitants.could be enough outbound demand.

Paris -> Reunion is currently served 4-5 times per day!

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Wizzair have 10 flights today departing from Abu Dhabi. Yes, 10 flights out of all their AUH routes.
While speculating about routes is fun, please remember Wizz is not a big airline at AUH, and it will take time to grow if Wizz want to be profitable.

In the recent news article of samchui.com it was written again about 50 planes based in AUH

What do you think?
May Wizz Air base about 2 aircraft in Reunion to complement the service from Abu Dhabi?

Flights from Reunion could go to:
- Mauritius
- Madagascar
- Comoros
- Mayotte
- Johannesburg
- Cape Town
- Durban
- Tanzania
- Sansibar
- Maledives
- Seychelles


6-hour range of A320/321neo. gcmap

The next new destination is Naples!

It's already bookable. 2-weekly from December.

Also interesting for people living in Rome. The high-speed train from Rome to Naples takes only 1 hour.

I am surprised still at the lack of destinations east of AUH, I would've thought the standard Middle East expat markets of Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, etc. would've been right up their alley. I guess linking up the dots of already existing destinations to the west means there are already ground handling contracts, airport managers, etc. in place.

According to different sources and rumours wizz AUH will add wet-leased capacity in 4Q22, any more Infos?!

myki wrote:

I am surprised still at the lack of destinations east of AUH, I would've thought the standard Middle East expat markets of Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, etc. would've been right up their alley. I guess linking up the dots of already existing destinations to the west means there are already ground handling contracts, airport managers, etc. in place.

Have the Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani Govts given the relevant permits for Wizz to fly ? This is likely to be a major lobbying exercise, trying to persuade a LOT of people why they should vote or sign a piece of paper. Unlike the EU, freedom of the skies very much does NOT apply

davidjohnson6 wrote:

myki wrote:

I am surprised still at the lack of destinations east of AUH, I would've thought the standard Middle East expat markets of Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, etc. would've been right up their alley. I guess linking up the dots of already existing destinations to the west means there are already ground handling contracts, airport managers, etc. in place.

Have the Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistani Govts given the relevant permits for Wizz to fly?

Perhaps they do, but not the aircraft? Although, if this was the case I presume 5W would pick a random date and put them on sale. If the aircraft don't appear in time, just push back the start date ... so, I can only presume they don't have the approvals as yet.

debonair wrote:

According to different sources and rumours wizz AUH will add wet-leased capacity in 4Q22, any more Infos?!

Yes I saw it on ch-aviation as a 'pro article' not giving any more information without a subscription.
On Linkedin it's written that the wet lease capacity will be there in the middle of 4Q22 — from Wizz Air Hungary (W6)!

that looks to be in line with this news:
"Wizz Air aims to be the dominant passenger carrier for the Qatar FIFA World Cup"
The Qatar airport cannot handle all the football fans. So a lot of them will also arrive and depart from surrounding airports like Abu Dhabi.
After the World Cup, Wizz won't need these additional planes in Abu Dhabi for now, so they become wet-leased.

https://dailynewshungary.com/hungarys-w ... world-cup/
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ch-aviat ... bdomain=my
https://www.ch-aviation.com/portal/news ... ty-in-4q22

myki wrote:

I am surprised still at the lack of destinations east of AUH, I would've thought the standard Middle East expat markets of Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, etc. would've been right up their alley. I guess linking up the dots of already existing destinations to the west means there are already ground handling contracts, airport managers, etc. in place.

yep as said in a recent interview with the Wizz Air president Robert Carey:

>> Regarding traffic rights from Abu Dhabi, as it is not an open-skies market, Carey said it is more complicated, and Wizz Air continues to learn. As a result, Carey says the airline must think about how to approach bilateral markets “to ensure we get access."

and:

>> The Wizz Air Group itself has targeted a fleet of 500 aircraft by the end of the decade. “About 100 to 125 aircraft are dedicated to the East [from Eastern Europe eastward], where Abu Dhabi would be a core,” Casey said.

>> Carey also sees room to grow for Wizz Air in Africa, mainly as flights to North African and West African destinations from Italy or Abu Dhabi. Carey said an issue for opening up traffic to the continent is that “most nations are bilateral-restricted.”

https://samchui.com/2022/09/05/wizz-air ... y8bQnZBxPY

What are the next destinations from Saudi Arabia?

From Saudi Arabia Wizz can reach more European airports than from Abu Dhabi:


mapdeveloppers

Due to the long flight time it's more likely that Wizz connects a European base with a Saudi airport instead of doing a W-pattern flight, except maybe from Greece:


Wizz presentation

I guess these will be the next destinations to Saudi Arabia before Wizz opens up bases in the country:

Bari
Naples
Catania
.
Larnaca
.
Athens (W-pattern)
Thessaloniki (W-pattern)
Greek islands (W-pattern)
.
Krakow / Katowice
Wroclaw
Warsaw
.
Skopje
Sarajevo
Tuzla
Chisinau
.
Sofia
Cluj

---- somewhat less likely: ----

Varna
Burgas
Craiova
Bacau
Sibiu
Timisoara
Iasi
.
Pristina (W-pattern)
Podgorica (W-pattern)
.
Debrecen
Gdansk
.
Vilnius

Wizz's first flight from either Jeddah or Riyadh doesn't begin until December 2022. Yes, over 2 months away, with some announced routes not starting until several months later.

Wizz needs to focus on ensuring their first few Saudi routes are a success... and being seen as a competent airline by Saudi residents... there are already significant concerns with operational reliability in W6's existing Europe network
Gotta get the basics right, before dreaming of the p***s extension that comes with a large network

Negativity is still there on a.net

Wizz Air is the #1 airline in Central and Eastern Europe.
#1 in Georgia
#1 in Hungary
#1 in Romania
#1 in Bosnia Herzegowina
#1 in Albania
#1 in Northern Macedonia
already #3 in Italy and Austria (!)
They didn't need financial aid during the pandemic due to over 1 billion dollars in cash.
Not having any serious accident.
The company is the CEE success story.

https://wizzair.com/static/docs/default ... a42f5d.pdf
https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/3223 ... st-airline

------

A tourism friendly Saudi Arabia has a lot of potential. The long Red Sea coast has warmer air and water temperatures than Egypt in winter.

The LINE / NEOM looks really fascinating to explore.

Imo it could be Ryanair's last chance to join going east by getting a Saudi AOC and opening up bases. Environmental taxes and depature taxes in Europe increase and the operating costs of the competitors like Eurowings decrease. In the future there won't be a big gap of ticket prices of Ryanair and other LCCs in Europe anymore.

It's risky for Ryanair focussing only on Europe. They should expand into other territories to become more independent of Europe.

What is Ryanair waiting for? That Egypt becomes safer and gonna grant them an AOC to fly a 6 hour radius around Egypt?

Wizz Air is much better prepared for the future.

I am surprised Wizz Air isn't starting any route from Poland to Saudi Arabia. Maybe Saudia plans to fly to Warsaw in the future? At the moment there are no flights between the two countries.

SCQ83 wrote:

I am surprised Wizz Air isn't starting any route from Poland to Saudi Arabia. Maybe Saudia plans to fly to Warsaw in the future? At the moment there are no flights between the two countries.

A possible reason is that Wizz may not have free capacity currently in Wroclaw, Krakow, Katowice and Warsaw to do a 2*5-hour rotation to Saudi Arabia.

Capacity was needed elsewhere: Just recently Wizz added 5 aircraft at once to the Bucharest base due to the Blue Air flight suspension.

The planespotting website says, that Wizz gonna get 12 new aircraft short-term. Including 2 more for Wizz Abu Dhabi. Looks like new routes are on the horizon. And the west-lease capacity for the Qatar FIFA World Cup ^^

https://www.routesonline.com/news/29/br ... bucharest/

The new aircraft is not only used for new destinations, but also for increased frequency:

This is the number of weekly flights currently and upcoming from Abu Dhabi:
Tirana: 2 → 3
Yerevan: 2 → 3
Bahrain: 4 → 5 → 7
Sarajevo: 3 → 4 → 5
Alexandria: 4 → 5
Kutaisi: 4 → 5
Male: 4 → 6 → 7
Muscat: 5 → 7
Belgrade: 4 → 5

Also W6 increases the frequency to the UAE:
Vienna: 3 → 6 → 7
Sofia: 2 → 3 → 5
Budapest: 4 → 7
Catania: 2 → 3 → 4
Katowice: 5 → 6
Krakow: 4 → 6
Bucharest: 4 → 7
Cluj: 1 → 2

Daily flights to the Maldives. Looks like a route people were waiting for.

... plus now 3-a-week for 5W on AUH-ESB routing as of January 2023.

... and first time ever to Uzbekistan:


WizzAir

This route gets them one step closer to fly to Turkmenistan ^^

In a Simpleflying article it's written: "Expect Abu Dhabi-Tashkent to be announced soon."
But it's not stated if this information comes from an official person working for Wizz Air.

In another article the former Easyjet commercial chief and now Wizz Air president Robert Carey expects "some other Wizz Air Abu Dhabi-like airlines operating, probably two or three more".

https://simpleflying.com/wizz-air-1st-uzbekistan-route/
https://simpleflying.com/wizz-airs-visi ... -strategy/

A new destination is Tbilisi.
But only for 2 weeks because of runway works in Kutaisi

Wizz Air discussed cooperation prospects with Georgian authorities. It may turn into a Wizz Air Kutaisi
With routes to Nepal, India and Ürümqi =)


6hour range around KUT, gcmap

https://agenda.ge/en/news/2022/3932
https://agenda.ge/en/news/2022/4103

5W might be able to fly to Nepal next month. They are waiting for a safety certificate of the Nepal airport.

https://www.aviationnepal.com/wizz-air- ... hairahawa/

Btw, what do you guess: Which airline is the largest A321neo operator worldwide?

The airline with the largest A321neo fleet worldwide is...

.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Wizz Air !

Who would have thought that...

https://www.airbus.com/en/products-serv ... deliveries

---

For guessing new countries and destinations: These are the ones already served:


https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... he_UAE.svg

India and China News

>>Wizz Air Abu Dhabi set to launch India flights soon, regulatory nod awaited.

Berlouis (Managing Director of 5W) said Wizz Air Abu Dhabi is keen to enter the Indian market and is currently applying for permits to begin operations in the sub-continent. “We are at the regulatory stage, and we need to get the destinations which we would be operating into and then secure the operating permit,” he said.

“During this phase, we are looking at which markets we will enter first, choosing ones that are underserved in Abu Dhabi. We feel our cost base gives us a competitive advantage compared to some of the other legacy carriers on the UAE-India route,” Berlouis said.<<

I change now India from Abu Dhabi from 'likely' to 'very likely'

https://gulfnews.com/business/aviation/ ... 1.91655286

---------

And China prepares to srap the zero Covid strategy and to ease international air travel.

The anticipated route Budapest - Astana - Beijing could be finally launched.

Which other interesting destinations could Wizz Air launch from Astana? Not that much. Not even Hong Kong, Shanghai, the visa-free Hainan, Hanoi or Chiang Mai.


gcmap. 6 hour range around Astana

https://www.aerotime.aero/articles/3257 ... ero-policy