Wizz Air announces 55 new routes and three new bases from this summer

Not content with Volotea recently revealing 41 new routes for this summer, Wizz Air late last week announced 55 new routes and three new bases.

Milan Malpensa, Tirana, and Larnaca will become bases from next month, with an initial five, three, and two aircraft respectively.  Malpensa will have only 230-seat A321ceos, while Tirana and Larnaca will have A320s.

Aircraft for these bases come from aircraft being reduced across 14 existing bases.

Of Wizz Air’s 55 new routes, Milan Malpensa will have 21, Tirana 15, and Larnaca 11. 

Salzburg, a new airport for Wizz Air, will have six new routes, while Luton, the carrier’s largest airport by seats, will see four.

These 55 new routes join a further 26 announced last month, including 14 from Luton and Vienna, for a total of 81 new routes. 

11 routes with 7+ weekly 

These 55 routes will have 195 weekly frequencies and a median of three-weekly in their initial week of operation.

11 will begin with at least a daily service, including Larnaca to both Athens (nine weekly) and Thessaloniki (daily).  Malpensa – Luton starts once-daily but later increases to twice-daily.

At 51%, just over half of Wizz’s new routes will have no direct competition, primarily from Tirana, Larnaca, and Salzburg. 

Tirana – Hamburg is interesting. With strong indirect demand (13,000) and high search volume (71,000), it was unserved. However, this year both Albawings and Wizz Air will operate it.

‘Refocused’ Wizz Air continues

Wizz Air still finds unserved and underserved opportunities to, from, and within Central and Eastern Europe, for example, Salzburg – Skopje. And it probably always will.  

For faster growth, however, there is now a big focus on intra-Western Europe and sun-and-sand routes, especially to Greek islands and to Spain.  

Luton, for example, will have new routes to Fuerteventura, Lanzarote, Malaga, and Palma.  The London airport has strong leakage to these destinations from its catchment, and capacity to them has collectively not yet recovered following Monarch’s end.

Almost all of Wizz Air’s new routes start next month

easyJet to add 55% more weekly frequencies on routes with Wizz Air

Milan Malpensa is easyJet’s third-largest base by seats this year, after London Gatwick and Geneva.

Wizz Air and easyJet will now compete directly on 12 routes from Malpensa: the seven in the table and also Krakow.

It’s no surprise that easyJet’s response – increased frequencies and price cuts – has been swift. 

For summer 2021, so still a year away, easyJet is reportedly to add 47 more weekly frequencies – 55% up on this summer – to the destinations to which it’ll directly compete with Wizz Air. 

Athens, Fuerteventura, Lisbon, Luton, Marrakesh, Tel Aviv, and Tenerife South are due to see weekly frequencies double or more than double.  

Malpensa – Luton: from 10-weekly to five-daily?

Malpensa – Luton is expected to increase to 21-weekly from the current 10.  Add Wizz Air’s coming twice-daily, and this airport-pair will have five-daily services (assuming no further changes) – up from the current 10-weekly.  

The impact on traffic, clearly at the expense of yields, will be dramatic, and reminiscent of the battle between easyJet and Ryanair on Luton – Copenhagen.

€14.49 one-way fares in peak season to Santorini

Meanwhile, easyJet is undercutting Wizz Air on various routes.  Malpensa – Santorini, for example, is available with easyJet for just €14.49 in mid-August – against €29.99 with Wizz Air. 

With easyJet’s dominance at Milan Malpensa but Wizz Air’s lower unit costs and lower average fares, it’ll be interesting to see who wins, aside from customers.