Wizz Air’s Kiev base now serves 12 destinations with addition this week of Barcelona (Girona) and Valencia
At the beginning of this summer season, Wizz Air moved its Kiev operations to Zhulyany Airport, the older airport closer to the city centre. Turnaround times are, however, scheduled to be longer at this airport than elsewhere in Wizz Air's network.
When Wizz Air first entered the Ukrainian market in July 2008, it focused on domestic services, and operated with just one aircraft from a base at Kiev’s Borispol airport. International services began to London Luton in December 2008, followed in January 2009 by further services to Cologne/Bonn, Dortmund, Katowice and Oslo Torp.
Domestic services were gradually dropped, with the exception of a Kiev – Simferopol service (which is operated daily during the summer season) and international services have been expanded. Last week saw the launch of two new routes to Barcelona (Girona) and Valencia, operated from Kiev’s Zhulyany Airport, which the airline moved to at the beginning of the summer 2011 season. This brings to 12 the number of destinations served by the airline from the Ukrainian capital.
| Weekly Frequency | Destination (code) |
|---|---|
| 7 | Simferopol (SIP), Venice (VCE*) |
| 5 | Dortmund (DTM) |
| 4 | Katowice (KTW), Memmingen (FMM) |
| 3 | Barcelona Girona (GRO), Cologne/Bonn (CGN), London Luton (LTN) |
| 2 | Antalya (AYT), Hamburg Lübeck (LBC), Stockholm Skavsta (NYO), Valencia (VLC) |
| Source: Wizz Air timetable for w/c 12 September 2011 *Normally operates to Venice Treviso (TSF) but not while runway maintenance work is taking place this summer/autumn. |
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As a result, Wizz Air Ukraine now operates 41 weekly departures with its two Kiev based 180-seat A320s, while the three London Luton weekly departures are operated by an aircraft based elsewhere in the airline’s extensive Central European network.
New services return to Kiev well after midnight
According to the airline’s schedule data, the new Valencia service arrives back in Kiev at 00:55 while the new Girona – Kiev flights are scheduled to arrive back at Zhulyany at 02:25 in the morning. Unlike elsewhere in its network, Wizz Air allows a full 50 minutes for aircraft turnrounds in Kiev, according to anna.aero’s analysis of the airline’s schedule data.
A low-cost airport to die for: Kiev Zhuliany
it’s not interesting. good thing would be resuming Wizz Air’s domestic Ukraine’s flights like to Lviv (LVO)
Wizz Air can’t serve Lviv at the moment, since it only operates A320s. During the current airport modernisation works (that also close the airport completely one day a week), the available runway is too short.