That is a fair statement. On the other hand it is worth remembering original tobacco manufacturers were not government run businesses either yet government got involved, sued them and won almost quarter a century ago.

We can only imagine what could happen to aviation in years ahead if green parties get into driver’s seat at influential EU governments.

You can not compare tobacco companies with the aviation sector, you are comparing apples to oranges.
Tobacco companies were responsible for millions of deaths caused by various sorts of cancers. Aviation does nothing of that sort. Airlines and the aviation industry have done a lot to reduce emissions. Just look at how much was done in the past 20 years. In 2001 we still had DC-9s, DC-10s, B732s... flying around. How many of those are around today?
Politicians love speaking about aviation's impact on the environment because it's a cow they really love to milk. They smell money and they always keep on coming back to it, nothing to do with the environment.

Furthermore, Wizz Air is a pan-European carrier and people in most markets they operate to/from simply don't care as much about the environment. If the EU wants to fight global weather changes, then it might put aside some extra funds for scientific research so that companies can use more energy efficient equipment (planes included). However, simply taxing companies without making sure those funds are going to be used on eco-research will not bring about the wanted change. Furthermore, if they want to be taken more seriously, then they might want to stop with using Greta as their PR since its borderline child abuse.

In the end, simple fact that Wizz Air (and Ryanair) keep on recording growing passenger numbers only goes to show what choice people made between the environment and cheap fares.

Blerg wrote:

In the end, simple fact that Wizz Air (and Ryanair) keep on recording growing passenger numbers only goes to show what choice people made between the environment and cheap fares.

You present an old fashioned view of our world, times are changing even at senior government/regulatory levels.

Yes, technology improvements have been achieved by aviation, but the gains are getting smaller and smaller.
While most importantly, prior to COVID, aviation kept expanding its environmental footprint due to its growth rate.
Expanding its footprint faster than any other industry, while operating outside the Paris Climate Agreement.
This is unique position is no longer accepted by society.

So.....aviation must be ready for the changes that COP 26 in Glasgow will bring next month.

It won't be long before cheap air fares are no longer available due to strict environmental regulations.

https://ukcop26.org/cop26-goals/

pretty much opinions and assumptions for that user name.

factsonly wrote:

You present an old fashioned view of our world

It's a view of people who want to do business internationally, who improve their live by working in another country and who are glad to afford a vacation abroad.

factsonly wrote:

Yes, technology improvements have been achieved by aviation, but the gains are getting smaller and smaller.
While most importantly, prior to COVID, aviation kept expanding its environmental footprint due to its growth rate.
Expanding its footprint faster than any other industry, while operating outside the Paris Climate Agreement.

did you check in which industry it's technologically much easier and much more effective to reduce emissions? focus on things that have the biggest impact.

factsonly wrote:

Expanding its footprint faster than any other industry

do you have a source for this claim? expanding, while only contributing for 3%?

factsonly wrote:

This is unique position is no longer accepted by society.

by the whole society?

factsonly wrote:

It won't be long before cheap air fares are no longer available due to strict environmental regulations.

Is that a fact?

Where exactly is this changing? Maybe in certain European countries which are willing to handicap their economy so that a few Leftist groups could be satisfied. The world has moved on from Western hegemony and we have seen that through the rise of nations like China and the re-emergence of Russia. Both countries are not willing to hamper their economic development so as to please these well funded and very loud interest groups from the EU.

Once these young and disillusioned voters realize that because of their actions they won't be able to fly for €30 anymore they will start to reconsider their paradigms.

Like I already said, if certain groups are so worried about the environment then they should make sure more funds are spent on research. Adding even more taxes that are paid into the general budget won't solve anything because they will be spent on many different things which have nothing to do with the environment.

With W6 venturing again to the Middle East, this time to Jordan, with four routes from Europe in to AMM and another four to AQJ, perhaps these could be other destinations for 5W? There would be no competition on the AUH-AQJ route at least.

myki wrote:

With W6 venturing again to the Middle East, this time to Jordan, with four routes from Europe in to AMM and another four to AQJ, perhaps these could be other destinations for 5W? There would be no competition on the AUH-AQJ route at least.

Yep I find both destinations quite likely. Aqaba rather as a seasonal destination as the average high in the summer is almost 40⁰C. Petra, the Read Sea and Wadi Rum are surely interesting for people in the UAE.

I can also imagine Eilat to be connected with AUH. If the bilateral agreement between Israel and the UAE makes that possible/reasonable. Wizz gonna serve already AUH-TLV daily.

Eilat has a relatively modest population, and the town is little more than a couple of shopping malls and a string of hotels by a beach. Unlike Aqaba which has Petra (relatively) nearby and Wadi Rum, Eilat is not a major cultural centre. Eilat is also expensive to visit. By road it takes a long time to get anywhere in central Israel. Border crossings to Egypt and Jordan are neither cheap nor quick

Eilat's airport (and that includes the near-closed Ovda, old Eilat and new Ramon airports) has only ever really been about either north Europeans wanting winter sun, or Israelis travelling domestically. As the saying goes, it's difficult to sell sand to an Arab.

UAE to Aqaba might happen. I wouldn't however get too excited about flights between the UAE and Eilat any time soon.

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Eilat has a relatively modest population, and the town is little more than a couple of shopping malls and a string of hotels by a beach. Unlike Aqaba which has Petra (relatively) nearby and Wadi Rum, Eilat is not a major cultural centre. Eilat is also expensive to visit. By road it takes a long time to get anywhere in central Israel. Border crossings to Egypt and Jordan are neither cheap nor quick

Eilat's airport (and that includes the near-closed Ovda, old Eilat and new Ramon airports) has only ever really been about either north Europeans wanting winter sun, or Israelis travelling domestically. As the saying goes, it's difficult to sell sand to an Arab.

UAE to Aqaba might happen. I wouldn't however get too excited about flights between the UAE and Eilat any time soon.

Not knowing the kind of tourism originates from UAE, but... Wouldn't Eilat be a draw for all the scuba divers and snorkel fans? Red Sea, including the Gulf of Aqaba (which Eilat is so obviously part of) are a paradise for those.
Also, isn't there some gambling going on, either side of Israel-Egypt frontier in Eilat/Taba area?

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Eilat has a relatively modest population, and the town is little more than a couple of shopping malls and a string of hotels by a beach. Unlike Aqaba which has Petra (relatively) nearby and Wadi Rum, Eilat is not a major cultural centre. Eilat is also expensive to visit. By road it takes a long time to get anywhere in central Israel. Border crossings to Egypt and Jordan are neither cheap nor quick

Eilat's airport (and that includes the near-closed Ovda, old Eilat and new Ramon airports) has only ever really been about either north Europeans wanting winter sun, or Israelis travelling domestically. As the saying goes, it's difficult to sell sand to an Arab.

UAE to Aqaba might happen. I wouldn't however get too excited about flights between the UAE and Eilat any time soon.

In 2018, Flydubai has announced flights to Aqaba but never launched

https://news.flydubai.com/aqaba-and-the ... ng-network

davidjohnson6 wrote:

As the saying goes, it's difficult to sell sand to an Arab.

88% of the UAE population are non-Emiratis. In Eilat tourists can consume alcohol more easily. And be more free than in the Arab world. The water temperature in Eilat is warmer in winter than in Cyprus and the Greece islands.

UAE<>Aqaba might not be interesting on a 300-400€ Flydubai roundtrip. But on a 75€ Wizz roundtrip.

airlinenavigato wrote:

davidjohnson6 wrote:

As the saying goes, it's difficult to sell sand to an Arab.

88% of the UAE population are non-Emiratis. In Eilat tourists can consume alcohol more easily. And be more free than in the Arab world. The water temperature in Eilat is warmer in winter than in Cyprus and the Greece islands.

UAE<>Aqaba might not be interesting on a 300-400€ Flydubai roundtrip. But on a 75€ Wizz roundtrip.

As a Cypriot myself, I have to say that Cyprus is not a winter tourist destination if you are looking to go swimming. It's still warmer than northern Europe but most of the time temperatures are between 10 and 20 degrees in winter. I think Eilat should be rather compared with Hurgada or Sharm El Sheikh.

So UAE expats who want freedom, be in a developed country and have a decent water temperature in the winter schedule, can only go to Eilat

Meanwhile Wizz Air is suspending several destinations from SKP from mid-November to mid-December. These are Turku, Beauvais, Nuremberg, Malpensa, Barcelona and Skavsta.

Anyone know if Wizz Air has operational issues at DTM? I see that flights are very often delayed. For example their SKP-DTM-BEG-DTM-SKP is almost delayed every flight. I checked their departures today on FR24 and it's the same for almost all flights.

Blerg wrote:

Anyone know if Wizz Air has operational issues at DTM? I see that flights are very often delayed. For example their SKP-DTM-BEG-DTM-SKP is almost delayed every flight. I checked their departures today on FR24 and it's the same for almost all flights.

Here you can see if other recent DTM departures were on-time:

https://www.flightradar24.com/data/airp ... departures -> Load earlier flights

—

On the World Routes event Varadi said again, that Wizz gonna go with the XLR further east and not transatlantic.

In a SF article James Pearson expects the Wizz XLR to have a range of 4.000nmi. I rather doubt it. JetBlue showed an XLR range of 3.700nmi –and that with 101 seats less than Wizz Air (≈10 tonnes less weight)

Varadi said before he wants to fly the XLR for up to 8 hours. That equals 3.250nmi.

In the article it's said that we should not expect the Wizz XLR to fly from Luton. I think it's because of the short runway.

From Gatwick I find it quite likely to connect AUH. Maybe also Almaty, Nur-Sultan, Muscat and one or two major central Russian cities.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/simpleflyi ... plans/amp/

https://www.google.com/amp/s/simpleflyi ... tions/amp/

He also said in the past that Wizz will always stick to a single type fleet, will never use primary airports, will always keep free seating, will never offer connections, will not fly charters etc etc.

holczakker wrote:

He also said in the past that Wizz will always stick to a single type fleet, will never use primary airports, will always keep free seating, will never offer connections, will not fly charters etc etc.

And for the most part they stick to those promises.

They do stick to a single type fleet, the A320 series. Promise fulfilled.

Primary airports are used where they can be for cheap or if there is no secondary alternative available. For example in Madrid they got no choice, there is only one commercial airport in the wide area. But they do use terminal 1 which is cheaper to use than the major terminal 4. In Rome they were able to get a good amount of slots at Fiumicino for a reasonable price due to the Alitalia collapse, so why not use it? On top of that they also keep flying to Ciampino. Close enough to what they promised.

They do offer free seating if you accept your random assigned seat, they never promised to let you pick your own seat for free. Of course they charge for that, that's logical. But they do offer free random assigned seating, therefor they keep their promise.

They don't offer connections. Of course passengers can make self-connections however Wizzair does not accept liability for that. They're sold as two individual flights, not as a connecting flight. Promise fulfilled I would say.

Due to COVID-19 they suddenly had a surplus of aircraft and why not make good use of that? Circumstances kind of forced them to change plans on this, at least temporary.

PatrickZ80 wrote:

And for the most part they stick to those promises.

IMHO A320 "series" is not a single aircraft type. He said this repeatedly when he was asked whether the 319 will be used because of poor initial loads. A-320ceo/321ceo/320neo/321neo are not the same type. Different radome, brakes, fuel system, engines, seats, toilets, you name it. And then there is the 330F.

They got plenty of choice in case of primary airports. Just a few examples: Luton/Gatwick, Warsaw/Modlin, Vienna/Bratislava, Oslo/Torp, Edinburgh/Prestwick, Barcelona/Girona, Frankfurt/Hahn, Milan/Bergamo, Venice/Treviso, Orly/Beauvais, Copenhagen/Malmö, Kyiv/Zhulyany, Valencia/Castellon, Hamburg/Lübeck, Krakow/Katowice etc. All of these are good, nearby alternative airports used by Wizz yet now they use either both or only the primary one.

Free seating means that no seats are allocated to ANY passengers and you can sit wherever you want (as it was working at Wizz for a long time). Now every passenger have a pre-allocated seat (albeit a randomly allocated one in some cases) which he/she should occupy.

Connecting flights were planned in Milan and Rome (the usual FR copycat) but it did not happen yet, you are right on this one. Until it happens eventually.

Charters: yes, the covid and everything. Yet "never say never" is a wise expression.

I think one of the reasons why they were against primary airports back then was because they were not willing to negotiate with LCCs. Some like VIE slashed their charges which made them attractive. Some legacy heavy airports revised their business strategies and so did airlines such as Wizz Air.

Abu Dhabi made an entertaining clip to visit the emirate: https://www.instagram.com/p/CVW2PnfrVGd/

Drop the PCR test(s)! People will then come of their own accord!

PatrickZ80 wrote:

They do offer free seating if you accept your random assigned seat, they never promised to let you pick your own seat for free. Of course they charge for that, that's logical. But they do offer free random assigned seating, therefor they keep their promise.

So what are the other options: You buy a ticket and then you have to pay an additional fee to get a seat assigned to you, or do you fly standing? Was this his promise, that passengers won't fly standing and that they don't have to pay extra to get a seat?

We, as a passengers, don't get a FREE seat, we paid for it when we purchased the ticket. Let's not play fast and loose with the words "free" and "offer".

How is their November network? Have they cut flights out of their bases?

Starting from December 2021, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi will launch nonstop flights to Moscow VKO. No launch date and frequency is given.

Source: Wizz Air LinkedIn post.

xwb777 wrote:

Starting from December 2021, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi will launch nonstop flights to Moscow VKO..

Interesting.
Yet another competitive route with EY/3L.

To be honest, I would've thought they'd be all over the Russian market by now. Ok, at least a few of the more southern ports at least, the likes or ROV, AER, etc. Throw on some 149dhm-each-way fares and it will fill up with the all-important ancillaries (hello baggage fees) as well in no time. Well, as a guess anyway. They know more than I do though on what will be profitable, of course! Anyway, best of luck to them on their first Russian station out of AUH hopefully more to come.

xwb777 wrote:

Starting from December 2021, Wizz Air Abu Dhabi will launch nonstop flights to Moscow VKO. No launch date and frequency is given.

Source: Wizz Air LinkedIn post.

The route will increase to daily starting from February 2022.

there is much competition on UAE<>Moscow. Prices without 5W are currently from 110€ one-way.

As far as I know, Russians arriving in Abu Dhabi cannot benefit from the regulation for vaccinated people, because the Russian vaccine is not approved by the WHO and accepted by the UAE.

But Russia is currently on the Abu Dhabi Green List.

Air Arabia Abu Dhabi gonna fly to Kochi, Kozhikode, and Thiruvananthapuram. So it seems to be possible for a new UAE carrier to set up flights to India. Maybe Wizz Air gets it also done.

https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/uae-in ... t-at-dh499

Regarding the schedules, 5W gonna need 4 aircraft from Dec 17 onwards.

The flights from Alexandria, Tirana, Moscow and Belgrade arrive in AUH after midnight.

Dubai <> London Heathrow is the top route in this November.

In 2019 it was in 6th place.

I see the Wizz XLR route LGW<>AUH as being served in any case.

https://simpleflying.com/dubai-london-t ... mber-2021/

airlinenavigato wrote:

Regarding the schedules, 5W gonna need 4 aircraft from Dec 17 onwards.

The flights from Alexandria, Tirana, Moscow and Belgrade arrive in AUH after midnight.

Talking of AUH-BEG, they just loaded 4th weekly flight from mid-January 2022. They launched this route in June as 2 weekly, increased it to 3 from the winter timetable and now it goes to 4.

Blerg wrote:

Talking of AUH-BEG, they just loaded 4th weekly flight from mid-January 2022. They launched this route in June as 2 weekly, increased it to 3 from the winter timetable and now it goes to 4.

In the end of March it goes to 2-weekly. Seems to be somewhat seasonal. Or Wizz gonna increase the frequency if there is enough demand.

In the end of March AUH-BUD goes from 6-weekly to 2-weekly.

airlinenavigato wrote:

Blerg wrote:

Talking of AUH-BEG, they just loaded 4th weekly flight from mid-January 2022. They launched this route in June as 2 weekly, increased it to 3 from the winter timetable and now it goes to 4.

In the end of March it goes to 2-weekly. Seems to be somewhat seasonal. Or Wizz gonna increase the frequency if there is enough demand.

In the end of March AUH-BUD goes from 6-weekly to 2-weekly.

I don't think they plan that far ahead, if I am not wrong, they launched BUD as 2 weekly, same as BEG. It's probably a somewhat generic timetable.
Also, as far as tourists go, I think in summer very few people go to the UAE unless they have to. It's mostly a winter destination. When summer comes I think there are two type of passengers that fly from the UAE to places like BEG and BUD. First, expats and then there are transfers flying via DXB.

In other words, when summer comes both BEG and BUD will rely on expats. Don't how many Hungarians there are in Dubai/Abu Dhabi but there are a lot of Serbs living down there.

One article says that Wizz gonna have 170 planes in spring 2021 already. Currently they have 146. According to a former chart their A320ceo are going to be reduced from currently 61 to 52 in spring.

So in the end there would be 24+9=33 deliveries needed until the end of spring in 7 months. Means 33/7=4,7 deliveries per month. 1 new aircraft per week.

I'm excited to see that ^^

https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/wizz ... sion-31297

airlinenavigato wrote:

One article says that Wizz gonna have 170 planes in spring 2021 already. Currently they have 146. According to a former chart their A320ceo are going to be reduced from currently 61 to 52 in spring.

So in the end there would be 24+9=33 deliveries needed until the end of spring in 7 months. Means 33/7=4,7 deliveries per month. 1 new aircraft per week.

I'm excited to see that ^^

https://www.ttgmedia.com/news/news/wizz ... sion-31297

I wonder if that also includes Wizz Air in Abu Dhabi. They have a lot of room for expansion over there, same with Italy. Five planes isn't that bad as long as travel demand doesn't collapse once again.

Received a notification yesterday that Wizz are once again delaying the start of SOF-AUH, OTP-AUH. They were supposed to start in mid-Jan, now scheduled to end of March.
Until then, as always, flights are to be operated to DXB (which works fine for most of the travellers I think).

yordanov wrote:

Received a notification yesterday that Wizz are once again delaying the start of SOF-AUH, OTP-AUH. They were supposed to start in mid-Jan, now scheduled to end of March.
Until then, as always, flights are to be operated to DXB (which works fine for most of the travellers I think).

In the end I wouldn't be surprised if they suspend these flights from AUH and just keep flying from DXB. After all, Dubai is a much larger market from these two places. Would be interesting to know how big of a market Sofia is from the UAE. Didn't FZ reduce flights recently?

Blerg wrote:

yordanov wrote:

Received a notification yesterday that Wizz are once again delaying the start of SOF-AUH, OTP-AUH. They were supposed to start in mid-Jan, now scheduled to end of March.
Until then, as always, flights are to be operated to DXB (which works fine for most of the travellers I think).

In the end I wouldn't be surprised if they suspend these flights from AUH and just keep flying from DXB. After all, Dubai is a much larger market from these two places. Would be interesting to know how big of a market Sofia is from the UAE. Didn't FZ reduce flights recently?

Don't think W6 are to keep DXB to be honest, at some point they are going to move these flights to AUH. I actually think this would be the last time they are postponing the move, but we shall see. I do hope you're right, though.

As for FZ - I think they kept flying SOF-DXB 2x weekly during the summer. Now are 4x weekly and will be daily from around Christmas (some days around the holidays 2x daily) until end of the winter schedule.

Can easily justify all these flights during the winter (Dubai is a very popular tourist destination around here), but not too sure about flights in the summer.

Blerg wrote:

yordanov wrote:

Received a notification yesterday that Wizz are once again delaying the start of SOF-AUH, OTP-AUH. They were supposed to start in mid-Jan, now scheduled to end of March.
Until then, as always, flights are to be operated to DXB (which works fine for most of the travellers I think).

In the end I wouldn't be surprised if they suspend these flights from AUH and just keep flying from DXB. After all, Dubai is a much larger market from these two places. Would be interesting to know how big of a market Sofia is from the UAE. Didn't FZ reduce flights recently?

Wouldn't wizz end up as Etihad feeder sa flydunay is for emirates?

Kikko19 wrote:

Blerg wrote:

yordanov wrote:

Received a notification yesterday that Wizz are once again delaying the start of SOF-AUH, OTP-AUH. They were supposed to start in mid-Jan, now scheduled to end of March.
Until then, as always, flights are to be operated to DXB (which works fine for most of the travellers I think).

In the end I wouldn't be surprised if they suspend these flights from AUH and just keep flying from DXB. After all, Dubai is a much larger market from these two places. Would be interesting to know how big of a market Sofia is from the UAE. Didn't FZ reduce flights recently?

Wouldn't wizz end up as Etihad feeder sa flydunay is for emirates?

They just created Air Arabia Abu Dhabi for that, so no

yordanov wrote:

Blerg wrote:

yordanov wrote:

Received a notification yesterday that Wizz are once again delaying the start of SOF-AUH, OTP-AUH. They were supposed to start in mid-Jan, now scheduled to end of March.
Until then, as always, flights are to be operated to DXB (which works fine for most of the travellers I think).

In the end I wouldn't be surprised if they suspend these flights from AUH and just keep flying from DXB. After all, Dubai is a much larger market from these two places. Would be interesting to know how big of a market Sofia is from the UAE. Didn't FZ reduce flights recently?

Don't think W6 are to keep DXB to be honest, at some point they are going to move these flights to AUH. I actually think this would be the last time they are postponing the move, but we shall see. I do hope you're right, though.

As for FZ - I think they kept flying SOF-DXB 2x weekly during the summer. Now are 4x weekly and will be daily from around Christmas (some days around the holidays 2x daily) until end of the winter schedule.

Can easily justify all these flights during the winter (Dubai is a very popular tourist destination around here), but not too sure about flights in the summer.

Well, if Dubai performs well for them from Sofia then why risk losing all of their customers to FZ? If I am not wrong, they are using a SOF based plane for this flight so there aren't that many operational difficulties.

Kikko19 wrote:

Blerg wrote:

yordanov wrote:

Received a notification yesterday that Wizz are once again delaying the start of SOF-AUH, OTP-AUH. They were supposed to start in mid-Jan, now scheduled to end of March.
Until then, as always, flights are to be operated to DXB (which works fine for most of the travellers I think).

In the end I wouldn't be surprised if they suspend these flights from AUH and just keep flying from DXB. After all, Dubai is a much larger market from these two places. Would be interesting to know how big of a market Sofia is from the UAE. Didn't FZ reduce flights recently?

Wouldn't wizz end up as Etihad feeder sa flydunay is for emirates?

Not really, Etihad has Air Arabia for that though I don't know how long that adventure will last. In my opinion that's just another EY identity crisis which I don't think will last that long. I assume once covid passes, passenger demand will start picking up and EY finances will improve. Once that happens they will no longer need Air Arabia.

All flights to Dubai are operated by W6 from their European bases: Katowice, Catania, Budapest, Bucharest, Sofia, Cluj. The W6 flight from Bari gonna commence in the end of March to Abu Dhabi.

For the majority of passengers, flights to DXB instead of AUH are better. But I think Wizz gonna concentrate their operations in Abu Dhabi.

Arriving in DXB, there is currently only one PCR test required. Arriving in AUH 2–4 depending on vaccination status and how long somebody stays in the Abu Dhabi emirate. So it's more comfortable and affordable to arrive in DXB currently

https://www-auswaertiges--amt-de.transl ... tr_pto=nui

Blerg wrote:

Well, if Dubai performs well for them from Sofia then why risk losing all of their customers to FZ? If I am not wrong, they are using a SOF based plane for this flight so there aren't that many operational difficulties.

Do you think that many customers will switch to FZ when W6 flies to AUH instead of DXB?

The fares of W6 are way better. The flights from SOF arrive in AUH before 9pm, in order to arrive back in Sofia not to much after midnight. At 9pm at AUH the direct bus to the Dubai Metro station for 5€ still operates. So I think the majority of passengers will stick to Wizz when flying to AUH.

emre787 wrote:

Kikko19 wrote:

Blerg wrote:

In the end I wouldn't be surprised if they suspend these flights from AUH and just keep flying from DXB. After all, Dubai is a much larger market from these two places. Would be interesting to know how big of a market Sofia is from the UAE. Didn't FZ reduce flights recently?

Wouldn't wizz end up as Etihad feeder sa flydunay is for emirates?

They just created Air Arabia Abu Dhabi for that, so no

Alright then

airlinenavigato wrote:

Blerg wrote:

Well, if Dubai performs well for them from Sofia then why risk losing all of their customers to FZ? If I am not wrong, they are using a SOF based plane for this flight so there aren't that many operational difficulties.

Do you think that many customers will switch to FZ when W6 flies to AUH instead of DXB?

The fares of W6 are way better. The flights from SOF arrive in AUH before 9pm, in order to arrive back in Sofia not to much after midnight. At 9pm at AUH the direct bus to the Dubai Metro station for 5€ still operates. So I think the majority of passengers will stick to Wizz when flying to AUH.

I still think most people will just switch to FZ, sure some will follow Wizz Air to AUH but I don't think it will be that many. After all, I think there is a reason why Wizz is keeping DXB from certain places in stead of just making the switch. There is no reason from an operational point of view why they didn't move to a probably much cheaper AUH for flights from Sofia (just an example).

Also, I don't think there was ever a case in Europe at least that an alternative airport killed the main one. FRA kept on thriving while HHN struggles, same thing with CPH and MMX, BRU and CRL, CIA and FCO, VIE and BTS and so on. In the same way, Dubai will remain the main gateway for the UAE. I think Wizz Air has realized this.

Management of the main airport typically decides to be more welcoming to LCCs when it sees an upstart rival picking up lots of business. CPH used to be very LCC unfriendly... then it saw all the pax going through MMX, and decided it could create an LCC pier which would accommodate the likes of Ryanair. Similiar with FRA-HHN, MAN-LPL, VIE-BTS, etc...

No sensible management sticks to rigid policies when it sees business draining to a rival
If LCCs become huge at AUH, expect DXB to do something about it - eg have a LCC pier which is a pain for pax to use.. but still sends the pax through DXB's shopping mall

davidjohnson6 wrote:

Management of the main airport typically decides to be more welcoming to LCCs when it sees an upstart rival picking up lots of business. CPH used to be very LCC unfriendly... then it saw all the pax going through MMX, and decided it could create an LCC pier which would accommodate the likes of Ryanair. Similiar with FRA-HHN, MAN-LPL, VIE-BTS, etc...

No sensible management sticks to rigid policies when it sees business draining to a rival
If LCCs become huge at AUH, expect DXB to do something about it - eg have a LCC pier which is a pain for pax to use.. but still sends the pax through DXB's shopping mall

I think one issue DXB has is space, FZ and EK are growing so there might not be too much pressure on them to attract LCCs. It's a similar situation to LHR where airlines are willing to pay a premium to fly from/to because that's also where passengers want to go.

davidjohnson6 wrote:

If LCCs become huge at AUH, expect DXB to do something about it - eg have a LCC pier which is a pain for pax to use.. but still sends the pax through DXB's shopping mall

I find that great. Like STN and BGY being shopping malls already every passenger has to pass. I never buy anything there, but it lowers the fees for the airlines and increases the revenue of the airport.

Airports could sell a "no shopping ticket" where a passenger can skip the stores and go directly to the gate ^^

It's possible to enter Dubai without PCR test for fully vaccinated citizens from France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland.

The pilot project is valid for arrivals between 31 October 2021 and 21 November 2021.

There are no direct Wizz flights between one of these countries and Dubai. So I think the effect for Wizz will be rather low.

But if the pilot project is successful it could scrap the PCR test for more or all vaccinated people, also for AUH.

https://www.emirates.com/uk/english/hel ... /tourists/