After opening two new bases in the UK in recent days, Wizz Air UK’s MD Owain Jones discusses the rationale behind the airline’s increased focus on leisure routes to points in Western Europe.
Wizz Air has put the brakes on plans to increase capacity to 80% in the next quarter amid heightened travel restrictions across Europe. However, the Hungarian carrier’s UK subsidiary has signaled its intention to expand from Doncaster Sheffield, just weeks after announcing a new base at the airport.
Wizz Air UK’s new base at London Gatwick is a “statement of intent” but further expansion is being hindered by the ongoing suspension of the 80-20 rule for airport slots, the airline’s MD Owain Jones has told Routes.
This week: Doncaster Sheffield to get a new link to Poland; Germania to operate Dusseldorf to Tirana; and Flybe switches Newquay Cornwall Airport route from Gatwick to Heathrow.
Flybe is basing two 118-seat Embraer E195s at the airport this summer offering flights to Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Jersey, Newquay, Malaga, Alicante and Faro. It will add the Dusseldorf link, its second route into Germany, from the end of October 2016 and further route growth is planned.
This milestone announcement, the biggest of its kind since the Yorkshire airport opened its doors in 2005, will boost traffic with an additional 500,000 seats on offer from the facility. Doncaster Sheffield is already among the fastest growing airports in the UK outside London and will now benefit from Flybe delivering up to 44 new flight departures per week, a 70 per cent increase in departures.
The additional aircraft will arrive ahead of a July 22, 2016 launch of the four new routes and will also facilitate frequency growth in some of its existing markets. Wizz Air will offer new twice weekly links between Cluj-Napoca and Alicante, Berlin Schoenefeld, Billund and Doncaster Sheffield, with the German capital become the newest destination in its network of 113 airports.
The airports, including Newcastle, Birmingham and Bristol have commissioned new research into the costs of devolving APD, which states that without policies to mitigate the effects of APD cuts in Scotland and Wales, English regional airports could see their passenger numbers fall by around 2.2 million by 2025.
TUI UK’s summer 2016 growth continues the UK’s largest holiday company’s strategy to ensure customers across the UK can fly from their local airport and stay at the best hotels in some of the most exciting destinations.
Wizz Air first launched operations in Poland in 2004 and has subsequently built up a strong presence in the country over the subsequent eleven years. As a result of these latest network additions it will now offer a total of 113 Polish routes to 20 countries from seven Polish airports.
Košice International Airport is among the fastest growing airports in Europe. It achieved a 50 per cent increase in passenger traffic in 2014 compared to the previous year, also recording its strongest charter season in its history, and a 13 per cent increase in aircraft movements for the year.
Starting in September 2015, Wizz air will base one of its Airbus A320 aircraft at the airport, initially bringing 30 direct jobs and two new routes to both Milan Bergamo in Italy, and Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield Airport in the UK.
This ‘start up aid’ will be made available from the Regional Air Connectivity Fund which was announced by the UK government in June 2013 and is open to airports with fewer than five million passengers per year. This fund has already been partly distributed to support strategic routes to London from Newquay and Dundee but is now being extended to bids for more routes.
